On April 25, 2026, Japan's JTB Group launched a global tender for the 2026 'Chinese Solar Terms Cultural Experience Tour' and explicitly listed the 'In-depth Study Tour Product for the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival' as a Category A priority procurement item. This event directly relates to such sub-sectors as the export of cultural and tourism study tour products, the development of intangible cultural heritage content, multilingual educational services, and cross-border intellectual property management, and deserves close attention from domestic study tour institutions, cultural IP operators, bilingual teacher training institutions, and foreign-related cultural and tourism supply chain enterprises.

Event Overview

JTB, Japan's largest travel group, officially launched the global procurement tender for the 2026 'Chinese Solar Terms Cultural Experience Tour' on April 25, 2026. The announcement explicitly listed the 'In-depth Study Tour Product for the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival' as a Category A priority procurement item, requiring the winning proposal to include a bilingual AR guide system, intangible cultural heritage handicraft workshops, oracle bone script rubbing practice sessions, and a Chinese-Japanese bilingual instructor teaching team. This procurement is an open tender for global suppliers, aiming to support JTB's expansion of inbound study tour business themed around Chinese culture for the Japanese market.

Which Sub-sectors Will Be Impacted

Study tour product design and delivery enterprises: As the tender clearly requires standardized delivery (including AR technology integration, intangible cultural heritage practice routes, and bilingual teaching scripts), enterprises with modular product packaging capabilities, cross-cultural curriculum design experience, and basic compliance qualifications such as ISO/IEC 27001 will be better positioned to respond. The impact is reflected in significantly higher requirements for product structuring, delivery cycle controllability, and localization adaptation efficiency.

Intangible cultural heritage content licensing and operating institutions: Sessions such as oracle bone script rubbing and peony-themed handicrafts involve licensing for the use of intellectual property related to traditional craftsmanship. The tender implies pre-review requirements for clear content ownership, the scope of cross-border licensing, and the compliance boundaries of derivative products. The impact is reflected in the increasing complexity of licensing agreement terms and the need to provide multilingual proof-of-rights documents simultaneously.

Multilingual teacher training and certification institutions: The requirement for a Chinese-Japanese bilingual instructor setup means that Chinese instructors must possess qualifications for international study tour teaching (such as JTB-recognized TEFL/TESOL or the Chinese Ministry of Education's certification for foreign-related study tour instructors), while Japanese instructors must be familiar with Chinese cultural contexts. The impact is reflected in increased attention to progress in mutual recognition of teacher certification systems, as well as stronger demand for the construction of bilingual teaching case libraries.

Cultural tourism technology service providers: Bilingual AR guidance is a mandatory technical component, requiring support for offline operation, multi-terminal compatibility (iOS/Android), and Chinese-Japanese bilingual voice recognition interaction. The impact is reflected in stronger hard constraints on technical indicators such as lightweight AR content engines, stability in low-bandwidth environments, and precision in the visualization of cultural symbols.

What Key Points Should Relevant Enterprises or Practitioners Watch, and How Should They Respond at Present

Pay close attention to the updated version of the 'Supplier Compliance Guidelines' to be released subsequently by JTB

The current tender has already put forward cross-border intellectual property compliance requirements, but specific review details have not yet been disclosed. Enterprises that have participated or plan to participate in the bidding are advised to continue tracking updates to supporting documents published on JTB's official website, with a focus on explicit clauses regarding the boundaries of secondary creation of cultural content, security assessments for cross-border data transfer, and qualification requirements for local service entities.

Focus on developing standardized product packages for the Luoyang Peony Festival IP

The tender lists 'In-depth Study Tour of the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival' separately and as a Category A priority item, indicating that this regional cultural IP has entered the procurement list of international mainstream channels. Enterprises should build replicable, verifiable, and auditable modular product packages around three major elements: the seasonal timing of solar terms (such as peony viewing during Grain Rain), local intangible cultural heritage (Luoyang palace lanterns, reproductions of Tang tri-colored pottery), and the place of origin of oracle bone script (with possible linkage to neighboring Anyang), rather than offering only customized solutions.

Start preparations early for joint certification of bilingual teaching staff

JTB has not explicitly designated certification bodies, but it requires Chinese and Japanese bilingual instructors to teach collaboratively. It is recommended that cooperating colleges or training institutions proactively connect with the Japan Educational Travel Association (JYTA) or institutions registered with the Japan Tourism Agency, sort out the existing teaching staff's curriculum design capabilities, cross-cultural communication records, and proof of practical class hours, and reserve a time window for rapidly responding to subsequent qualification verification.

Carefully assess the data sovereignty attribution clauses for AR content

Bilingual AR guidance involves the collection and storage of user behavior data. Although the tender does not specify data storage locations, based on Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) and China-Japan bilateral practice, enterprises are advised to preset localized data deployment options in their technical proposals and clearly stipulate data ownership, usage rights, and destruction mechanisms during the business negotiation stage to avoid obstruction in later delivery.

Editor's Viewpoint / Industry Observation

From an observational perspective, this JTB tender is not an isolated procurement action, but a key node in the upgrading of Chinese solar term culture by Japan's mainstream channels from a 'sightseeing add-on' to a 'systematic study tour product line'. At present, it is more appropriate to understand it as a structural signal——overseas leading travel operators are using standardized procurement to force domestic cultural content suppliers to improve product granularity, compliance certainty, and degree of technical integration.

From an analytical perspective, this event has not yet resulted in the implementation of large-scale orders, but it has already substantially raised the market entry threshold for study tour products targeting the Japanese market. The industry needs to distinguish between policy signals (such as JTB listing solar term culture as a core strategic direction) and business implementation (such as the size of initial tour groups, procurement amounts, and acceptance standards), so as to avoid equating the launch of procurement with immediate market volume expansion.

From an industry perspective, what is truly worth attention is not the overseas expansion of a single festival event, but whether the five-element combination model of 'solar terms + regional IP + intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship + digital tools + dual-teacher mechanism' can be replicated in other cultural scenarios (such as Hangzhou Longjing tea culture and Dunhuang study tours on the Twenty-Four Solar Terms murals), thereby forming a scalable methodology for exporting China's cultural and tourism content.

Conclusion: This JTB tender marks that Chinese solar term cultural IP is shifting from conceptual export to standardized product export, and its core significance lies in promoting the evolution of the domestic study tour supply chain toward compliance, modularization, and embedded technology. At present, it is more appropriate to view it as a capability stress test rather than an immediate market opportunity; relevant enterprises should prioritize consolidating the foundation of delivery certainty rather than chasing short-term orders.

Source note:
Main source: the '2026 Global Procurement Announcement for the 2026 Chinese Solar Terms Cultural Experience Tour' released on the official website of Japan's JTB Group on April 25, 2026 (publicly accessible).
Items for continued observation: whether JTB will subsequently release supporting documents such as the 'Supplier Compliance Guidelines', the 'Whitelist for Bilingual Teaching Staff Certification', and the 'AR Technical Interface Specifications'.