On February 14th, the kick-off meeting for JTB's (President and CEO Hiroyuki Takahashi) domestic travel campaign "Japan's Season Setouchi and Sanin" was held at the Hilton Osaka in Kita-ku, Osaka City, to be held from April to September 2018. The company announced a number of destination-based plans, including a "tower top" tour of the Great Seto Bridge in Okayama Prefecture and a nighttime reservation plan for Matsue Castle in Shimane Prefecture, which "provides Setouchi and Sanin in a way that only JTB can offer" (Toshiyuki Imai, Managing Director and Head of Domestic Business Division). Japan's Season is a company-wide campaign to revitalize domestic travel that has been running since 1998 with the theme of "Rediscovering the Charm of Japan." The campaign aims to improve tourism infrastructure such as secondary transportation measures and develop destination-based travel products, leading to the transfer of customers to the region and revitalization. This will be the third time the campaign has been held in the Setouchi and Sanin areas since 2002 and 2012. The kick-off meeting was attended by approximately 320 people, including government officials, tourism businesses, and JTB Group employees from both areas. In his opening speech, JTB Domestic Travel Planning Managing Director and West Japan Business Manager Udagawa Takehiko stated, "This is the first Nihon no Shun event since we became a single company under the new JTB. We will make the most of all sales channels and definitely aim to achieve our sales targets," and set a goal of 8.74 billion yen in sales and 722,000 overnight stays, a 10% increase from the same period last year. Regarding the selection of Setouchi and Sanin as the first in the new Nihon no Shun, the company cited the fact that all five Chugoku prefectures are celebrating milestone years, including the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of Mt. Daisen (Tottori Prefecture), the 200th anniversary of the death of Matsudaira Fumai (Shimane Prefecture), the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Great Seto Bridge (Okayama Prefecture), the 900th anniversary of the birth of Taira no Kiyomori (Hiroshima Prefecture), and the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration (Yamaguchi Prefecture), and that "there are many events that customers are interested in." In addition, they also revealed that "JR Group's San'in Destination Campaign will be held from July to September, and we will work together with JR West," and that "there was a strong request from the JTB Agreement Inns and Hotels Association." On top of that, they have been working on developing content for Nihon Shun for the past year and a half to appeal to individual travelers, group travelers, and international travelers to Japan, and have already conducted product explanations at branch offices and in-house training. The early start has paid off, with group travelers up 241.1% compared to the previous year, and individual travelers up 105%. Reservations from the Tokyo metropolitan area are also doing well. At the kick-off meeting, they emphasized that they have expanded their promotion by opening a dedicated website and SNS, and that a company-wide sales system has been established. At the subsequent opinion exchange meeting, Tottori Prefecture Governor Hirai Shinji and JR West Executive Officer and Sales Director Murohiro also attended and gave speeches. They expressed their hopes for the success of Nihon Shun. (Next article)JTB's unique Setouchi and Sanin regions: "Japan's Seasonal Features" (2) Proposing "Five-Star" Travel in the first half of FY2018 - Product planning highlighting the individuality of each prefecture