FOR an inbound operator like Beauty of Japan that depended solely on international inbound travellers, the pandemic and the closing of borders almost sounded the death knell. But its CEO Takahiro Noguchi has found small pockets of business within his basket of products and services to keep the company alive and kicking. He has even seen new opportunities arise.
One such opportunity came through his experimentation with Amazon’s Explore which is currently still in beta and only open to its North American customers.
“Before we started with Amazon, we were already providing our own virtual experiences like tea ceremony and calligraphy. But Amazon Explore is a unique offering. It is a private, one-on-one experience that is very informative and flexible. But it has its pros and cons. First, the guide cannot see the client’s face – it protects the client’s privacy so that is good. But from the guide’s point of view, it is difficult to conduct the tour yet not know if the client is enjoying it, smiling and feeling happy. It makes it difficult to have a conversation,” said Noguchi.
What is also unique about these tours is the “traveller” can dictate where the guide goes – for example, into a particular shop that they may pass. Once in the shop, the guide can purchase items on behalf of the client. The items bought on the tour are then mailed to the client and charged through Amazon.
The novelty of that aspect created a healthy demand at the start, with the shopping spend on a 30 to 40 minute tour averaging about US$200. Popular items, he said, were stationery and household items.
“Sales (of the tours) were not so bad when the product was launched in October last year. We were expecting a jump in sales over Christmas but it was not as high as I expected,” he said.
After the novelty wore off, he said other issues like the time difference became a deterrent. Customers on the east coast of the US had a 13-hour time lag over Japan, so it wasn’t appropriate for live tours. The customer base was therefore mostly limited to the west coast.
Noguchi would be interested to continue with the experimentation of such tours if Amazon opened it up to the rest of the world, especially Asia including Australia and New Zealand.
However, he admitted that once borders opened, he expects the demand for virtual sightseeing tours to diminish. Educational tours may continue to be attractive for students and researchers, or people who were after very specific experiences like a tea ceremony or a cooking class, he said.
Another bright spot in his business during this pandemic has been his consulting business through which he has provides companies and government agencies in Japan counsel on creating and marketing relevant products to different groups of foreigners.
“We give them the foreigner’s point of views about what is appealing; we can also develop tours and activities for them, and we can also sell their products on our platform and introduce to OTAs. This way, we are also able to increase our portfolio of tours and activities,” he said.
Beauty of Japan currently has about 300 tours and activities on its platform.
He said the consulting business is healthy because companies “still have budgets to spend” and many are eager to capitalise on the afterglow of the Olympics and be ready for when borders do reopen.
Of course, holding the Olympics without spectators is a “huge opportunity lost”, he lamented. Already holding on to a heap of forward bookings, he is painfully aware of the potential losses.
“It is about survival now. It is hard to foresee when the industry will come back and when Covid will be settled. No one expected it to continue for such a long time. When I think of my short-term strategies, I have to paint worst case scenarios such as mutations of the virus, vaccines not working,” he said.
But like most Japanese, he remains stoic and speaks with resilience and optimism.
“If all goes smoothly (with the Olympics), the challenge would be catching the wave. It’s going to be a really fast one I think. I had to downsize the company and it is now a boutique. But when the industry is back, I think my staff will be overloaded. I will have to hire new people and train them, so the whole process is a challenge, but yes, it will be a good challenge,” he added.
Featured Image Credit: Beauty of Japan
