Mitsukoshi Introduces Luxury Bus Tours for the High End Domestic Travel Market in Japan
April 22, 2008
With an extravagant interior evoking images of a luxury salon blended with business class comforts, the new tour busses from high-end Japanese department store Mitsukoshi are set to provide travelers with superior quality and relaxation throughout their journey.
From April of this year, Mitsukoshi will begin their marketing and sales campaign for the luxury tour busses aimed at their very high-end customers, in particular senior citizens. Mitsukoshifs "Premium Cruiser" luxury busses usually seat 45 passengers, but have been redesigned into five rows of paired seats. The premium leather seats were specially designed to give luxurious comfort while maintaining a feeling of privacy for each passenger.
In consideration of environmentally conscious passengers who may be concerned about the carbon impact of touring in a bus which only seats 10, the company has introduced measures to off-set the environmental impact.
There are 17 separate tour options available, including those departing from the Mitsukoshi head office in Tokyo for popular destinations in the region, in particular to hot spring resorts and other areas of special interest to Japanese consumers. For example there are courses around the Izu Peninsula south of Tokyo for cherry blossom viewing in the spring time, tours exploring the ruins of Odawara Castle, and overnight stays at the recently opened high-end hot spring resort Atami Fu-Fu. An overnight stay and two day tour starts at 148,000yen per person/room, based on double-occupancy. Although tour cost range from 120-200,000yen per person, reservations are doing very well, and according to the company "these tours are for adults who wish to have a relaxing and comfortable vacation". As such the company is targeting females in the 60's ad 70's, who up until now have mostly had only cheaper options for tour busses available, which may have been enjoyable but were certainly not of the high standard which is now being offered.