On May 1, 2026, JTB, Japan's largest travel company, officially launched the 2026 'Second-Phase Tender for China Spring Study Tour Products,' in which the weighting of the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival themed study tour program in the overall scoring system was increased from 25% to 35%. This adjustment directly affects enterprises engaged in the design, content development, and supply chain services of China's cultural and tourism study tour products for the Japanese market, especially creating structural opportunities and adaptation pressure for institutions with capabilities in bilingual courses, hands-on intangible cultural heritage resources, AI-guided tour technology, and carbon-neutral itinerary verification.

Event Overview

On May 1, 2026, JTB Japan launched the 2026 'Second-Phase Tender for China Spring Study Tour Products.' This tender explicitly raises the weighting of the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival themed study tour program in the comprehensive scoring system from 25% to 35%. Key evaluation dimensions include: the quality of bilingual course design, the proportion of hands-on class hours in intangible cultural heritage workshops, AI-guided tool coverage, and the completeness of supporting documents for carbon-neutral itineraries. The winning bidder will receive key promotional resource support from JTB's 327 stores across Japan.

Which Sub-Sectors Will Be Affected

Study Tour Curriculum Development and Content Production Institutions

The increased weighting directly strengthens the decisive role of course content in the overall proposal. As the scoring criteria add hard indicators such as bilingual course design and hands-on class hours for intangible cultural heritage, content providers that only offer basic itinerary planning or monolingual presentation services will face a higher entry threshold.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance Bases and Local Cultural Experience Suppliers

'Hands-on class hours in intangible cultural heritage workshops' has been listed as an independent evaluation item, meaning that purely display-based and observation-based cooperation models for intangible cultural heritage no longer meet tender requirements. Local suppliers with standardized teaching processes, safe and compliant hands-on spaces, quantifiable class-hour records, and bilingual teaching assistant support are more likely to be shortlisted.

Smart Cultural Tourism Technology Service Providers

AI-guided tour coverage has become a mandatory scoring item, indicating that JTB has deeply incorporated technology application into its product acceptance standards. Technology suppliers that have not deployed verifiable, measurable, multilingual AI-guided tour systems (such as speech recognition + real-time translation + behavioral trajectory tracking) will find it difficult for their solutions to support the implementation of bidding proposals.

Low-Carbon Tourism Certification and Itinerary Management Service Providers

'Carbon-neutral itinerary certification' has entered the core scoring items of the tender for the first time, pointing to rigid requirements for carbon emission calculation and offset mechanisms across the entire chain, including transportation, accommodation, materials, and activities. Service providers lacking third-party certification qualifications, without established carbon accounting models, or unable to provide traceable evidence have clear shortcomings in proposal compliance.

What Should Relevant Enterprises or Practitioners Focus On, and How Should They Respond at Present

Pay Close Attention to the Detailed Clauses of the 'Second-Phase Tender Technical Specifications' to Be Released Subsequently by JTB

At present, only the weighting adjustment and the four major evaluation directions are known, but key implementation standards such as the specific language proficiency requirements for bilingual courses (such as teaching capability at JLPT N2 or above), the statistical criteria for AI-guided tour coverage (by session / by participant / by dwell time), and the list of certification bodies for carbon-neutral certification have not yet been disclosed. It is recommended to closely follow the official website of JTB China's business division and its targeted notification channels.

Focus on the Integration of Luoyang Local Resources and Verification of Cross-Module Capabilities

The increased weighting does not mean simply upgrading cooperation with a single scenic spot, but rather testing the integrated four-dimensional capability of 'Peony Festival + study tour + low-carbon + technology.' Enterprises need to simultaneously review their actual implementation conditions in the Luoyang area, such as teaching staff for courses, contract status of intangible cultural heritage workshops, deployment points of AI tools, and interfaces for carbon emission data collection, so as to avoid a disconnect between proposal design and execution capability.

Differentiate Between Policy Signals and the Pace of Business Implementation

This weighting adjustment is an optimization of procurement evaluation rules, not a market access policy or mandatory industry standard. The bidding result only affects JTB channel's product structure for spring 2026 and does not change the procurement logic of other travel agencies. Enterprises should rationally assess the priority of resource input and avoid misreading the rules of a single tender as a wind vane for the entire industry.

Prepare Verifiable Process Documentation Templates in Advance

For high-frequency review items such as bilingual course lesson plans, sign-in sheets for intangible cultural heritage workshop class hours, AI-guided tour usage logs, and carbon-neutral itinerary verification reports, it is recommended to pre-establish standardized document templates according to JTB's past tender practices and complete internal compliance reviews to shorten the bidding response cycle.

Editorial Viewpoint / Industry Observation

显然，这一权重调整标志着JTB在竞争日益激烈的中国入境研学市场中，战略重心正转向产品差异化——强调可验证的教育质量和运营可持续性，而非通用型观光套餐。It is not yet a market-wide standard, but rather a procurement-level signal targeting high-capability suppliers. From an industry perspective, it reflects growing buyer-side scrutiny on pedagogical rigor and ESG compliance in cross-border cultural education products. Continued monitoring is warranted, as similar weighting models may be adopted by other major Japanese or Korean outbound operators in upcoming tenders.

Conclusion

In essence, this weighting adjustment is a refined upgrade of JTB's own procurement standards for study tour products, rather than a change in industry regulatory policy or a sudden shift in market demand. It is more appropriately understood as a redefinition by a leading channel operator of the capabilities required from high-quality suppliers, signaling that relevant enterprises need to shift from 'being able to create itineraries' to 'being able to verifiably deliver educational value and sustainable practices.' At the current stage, pragmatically benchmarking against tender details and strengthening the localized chain of execution evidence is more meaningful for business than broadly interpreting trends.

Information Source Notes

Main source: the public version of the 'Announcement of the 2026 Second-Phase Tender for China Spring Study Tour Products' released by JTB China Business Division on May 1, 2026. Items pending continued observation: the official text of the 'Technical Specifications,' the specific compliance thresholds for each evaluation item, and the timing and scope of the public announcement of tender results.