Japan tour specialist InsideJapan has added 35 small group tour departure dates for 2022 to cater for growing demand.
It said there is continued uncertainty around when travel will be possible in 2021 and when Japan will open its international borders again – but reported that demand for 2022 and beyond is beginning to pick up.
The added tour dates cover the latter half of the year, with a range of departures scheduled to coincide with early autumn leaf-viewing season.
The operator has also released dates for its new ‘Walking the Nakasendo and Beyond’ small group tour.
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It takes clients from Tokyo to Japan’s cultural capital of Kyoto, via the Nakasendo ‘samurai route’ and the lesser-known Shin-Etsu Trail.
The 11-day tour costs from £2,400 not including flights.
Madeleine Bromige, product manager, said: “This tour ensures people see Tokyo and Kyoto, which are on everyone’s bucket list – but it goes further than that. We have always been about local culture, local people and special off-radar places; getting people ‘beneath the surface’. This trip really does that well.”
She added that 2022 is likely to be Japan’s first sakura (cherry blossom) season open to international travellers since 2019, so InsideJapan has released a record 23 departures for the springtime.
Bromige said: “We expect that all of our springtime tours will run – and they’re likely to sell out.”
Alastair Donnelly, InsideJapan’s director, said: “Japan has moved from being a niche destination to top of the ‘bucket list’ since we started doing this back in 2000.
“The positive sign for us is that there is a big appetite for Japan, and that the country and culture rarely fail to deliver.”
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