Travel agencies are organizing package tours that include speed-dating events at shops and restaurants in an effort to lure younger customers.
Tours with “machikon,” a portmanteau of “machi,” or town, and “gokon,” a matchmaking party, can “attract younger generations who are said to be uninterested in traveling,” said one travel official.
Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. was the first travel agency with a website focusing on machikon tours and the service has enjoyed steady demand. It is currently organizing a one-day trip in December that will take some 400 participants to Enoshima in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Nippon Travel Agency Co. and JTB Corp. have followed suit.