After announcing a similar deal with US-based HomeAway last month, Japan’s newly-launched homesharing player Rakuten Lifull Stay is now turning to the Chinese market through its latest partnership with China’s leading vacation rental platform Tujia.
The deal will see Rakuten Lifull Stay providing Japanese property listings from its tentatively-titled Vacation Stay service to Tujia, while Tujia Japan will promote Japanese tourist destinations to its users.
The two will also share information on trends in tourism from China to Japan and on popular Japanese destinations for Chinese tourists with the goal of enabling Rakuten Lifull Stay’s efficient acquisition of new vacation rental properties.
Tujia was launched in 2011 and now has over 500,000 vacation listings in 1,100 cities across 70 countries. Tujia Japan launched a Japanese language website in March 2017 and aims to acquire 200,000 Japan-based vacation rental property listings by 2025.
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan in fiscal year 2016 was 6.4 million, an increase of 27.6 per cent over the previous year.
