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Japanese restaurant reservation websites are actively attracting foreign tourists visiting Japan. TableCheck Japan plans to increase the number of restaurants that introduce a system that allows customers to skip the queue by purchasing priority tickets by 10 times, while Kakaku.com, which operates the food review website “Tabelog,” has proposed setting up reservation quotas specifically for tourists visiting Japan. Restaurant reservation websites are all improving the satisfaction of both tourists and restaurants by enriching their own services.
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| Tourists at Ichibangai in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture |
TableCheck introduced the priority system “TableCheck FastPass” in February. Users can buy tickets online and enter the restaurant without waiting in line. Currently, more than 30 restaurants have introduced this system, and TableCheck plans to expand the number of restaurants to 300 within this year.
Currently, 20% of customers who use TableCheck FastPass are tourists visiting Japan. The company’s president, Masaru Taniguchi, said, “There is a demand for (fast entry) among tourists visiting Japan who are in a tight schedule.” The price of the priority ticket is determined by the restaurant itself, and some ramen and udon restaurants are reported to set the price at 2,000 yen (about 98 yuan).
TableCheck will also update its store search function to improve the convenience of use for tourists visiting Japan. The company operates restaurant reservation websites in 35 countries and regions around the world. It is developing a search service that meets user needs based on data and plans to update its functions by 2025.
For example, the company is considering changing the order of displayed stores based on user purposes and making full use of data such as return rate.
Tabelog officially launched a reservation service specifically for tourists visiting Japan in June. The number of stores that can be booked in English, Chinese, and Korean has increased to about 35,000, six times the previous number. The vacancies of each store can be checked through the calendar display.
Customers are required to show their credit cards when making reservations, and a system usage fee of 400 yen (about 19.6 yuan) per person is charged. The purpose of this function is to minimize the number of customers canceling reservations, which is a concern of restaurants, and the number of restaurants that can be reserved will be further expanded in the future.
Tabelog will actively encourage restaurants to reserve exclusive reservations for tourists visiting Japan. The system usage fee is also considered to be adjusted to a mechanism that adjusts according to the cost of the reserved package. Taku Hongike, head of Tabelog of Kakaku.com, said, “We plan to provide a service that only allows reservations by October.”
As a post-pandemic tourist destination, Japan, with its depreciating yen, is becoming increasingly popular. According to statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of tourists visiting Japan from January to June reached 17.78 million, a record high. The average food and beverage expenses of tourists visiting Japan during their stay in Japan from April to June reached 52,318 yen (about 2,565 yuan), an increase of 7% year-on-year.
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Rakuten Gurunavi, a restaurant website operated by Japan’s Gurunavi, said that the proportion of foreign language reservations made through Google (April to June) has increased by about 5 percentage points compared to 2023. Each website is working with Google Maps and overseas travel review websites to expand connections with tourists.
Nikkei (Chinese version: Nikkei Chinese website) Sakuragi Hiroki
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