On 2026年4月26日, Japan's JTB Group officially launched the global supplier tender for the 2026—2027 'Chinese Solar Terms Cultural Experience Tour'. This event marks a systematic upgrade in the procurement of in-depth study-tour products themed around Chinese culture by leading overseas travel operators, and companies engaged in cultural-tourism planning, cross-border study-tour services, AR technology applications, intangible cultural heritage handicraft operations, and solar-term agricultural practice should pay close attention.

Event Overview

On 2026年4月26日, Japan's JTB Group issued the second-phase global supplier tender announcement for the 'Chinese Solar Terms Cultural Experience Tour'. It explicitly lists 'immersive study-tour route design during the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival' as a Category A technical criterion with the highest weighting, accounting for 40%. The proposal is required to cover an AR guided-tour system, bilingual handicraft workshops, solar-term agricultural practice sessions, and a closed-loop safety management mechanism. The bidding deadline is 2026年5月20日.

Which segmented industries will be affected

Cultural-tourism planning and destination operation companies

As the tendering party has set route design during the Luoyang Peony Festival as the highest-weighted technical indicator, planning agencies with capabilities in developing solar-term cultural themed routes, experience in coordinating local resources, and a track record in executing large-scale festival events will see their competitiveness in technical evaluation directly strengthened by this orientation. The impact is mainly reflected in higher qualification thresholds for bidding, increased requirements for the depth of proposal customization, and cross-cultural expression capability becoming a rigid requirement.

AR/VR technology service providers (for cultural-tourism scenarios)

The tender explicitly requires AR guided tours as one of the foundational modules, embedded into the immersive route of the Peony Festival. This means that technology companies that merely provide general AR platforms, if lacking the capability to adapt solar-term cultural content, experience in bilingual interaction logic design, and cases of integrated online-offline route development, will find it difficult to meet the substantive requirements of the technical criteria. The impact is mainly reflected in more granular project implementation and bringing forward the verification cycle for software-hardware coordination.

Intangible cultural heritage handicraft and bilingual education service providers

'Bilingual handicraft workshops' are listed as a mandatory module, targeting service providers that possess full-chain capabilities in curriculum development, bilingual teaching by instructors, localized material supply, and safety-oriented teaching management for minors. The impact lies in the fact that a single-product output model can hardly meet the standard; it is necessary to integrate instructional design, language adaptation, compliant teaching tools, and on-site execution capabilities. For non-standardized handicraft categories (such as peony-themed rubbings and solar-term sachets), process stability and accuracy of cultural interpretation become key evaluation points.

Solar-term agricultural practice bases and supporting service institutions

The tender requires the inclusion of solar-term agricultural practice sessions, which means that solar-term-themed farming sites capable of being opened, taught, and accommodating groups (such as peony planting cooperatives in the suburbs of Luoyang and traditional farming demonstration gardens), together with their supporting explanation systems, tool safety specifications, insurance, and emergency response service capabilities, will enter the scope of substantive procurement evaluation. The impact is reflected in the shift of site qualifications from 'usable' to 'evaluable', and agricultural practice sessions must simultaneously meet the triple standards of cultural accuracy, operational safety, and process replicability.

What key points should relevant companies or practitioners focus on, and how should they respond at present

Closely monitor the tender document details and subsequent clarification announcements

JTB has not yet disclosed the complete technical scoring details or references to past winning cases. What deserves more attention at present is the Q&A document it may release before 2026年5月10日, especially practical parameters involving AR content delivery formats, criteria for determining language levels in bilingual workshops, and minimum safety distances for agricultural practice, all of which will directly affect the direction of proposal preparation.

Focus on verifying the feasibility of routes during the Luoyang Peony Festival period

All bidding proposals must be based on route simulation during the actual hosting period of the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival in 2027年4月 (usually from early to mid-4月). Companies should immediately verify their local partners' scheduling in Luoyang, transportation connection capacity, venue booking authority, and backup routes for extreme weather, so as to avoid a disconnect between technical proposals and actual carrying capacity.

Differentiate between JTB procurement signals and the pace of bulk business implementation

This is a single-year tender and does not constitute a long-term framework agreement. From an analytical perspective, its essence is a stress test and capability assessment by JTB of the supply chain for in-depth Chinese cultural experience products, rather than the immediate launch of large-scale procurement. Companies should not adjust their annual capacity planning on this basis, but may regard it as a qualification benchmark for entering the high-end Japanese study-tour market.

Complete compliance pre-review of bilingual materials and safety contingency plans in advance

The tender clearly requires bilingual handicraft workshops and closed-loop safety management. It is recommended that companies complete third-party language review of bilingual materials such as course scripts, AR voice copy, and emergency contact lists before 5月10日, and simultaneously consult the local cultural and tourism authorities in Luoyang on filing requirements for group activities involving minors, to ensure that the commitments in the bidding documents have an immediate basis for fulfillment.

Editor's Viewpoint / Industry Observation

From an industry perspective, this tender should not be simply understood as an overseas order opportunity, but rather as a structural test by mainstream Japanese channels of the professionalism, standardization, and deliverability of Chinese culture-themed study-tour products. At present, it is more appropriate to understand it as follows: JTB is using a high-weight solar-term scenario (the Luoyang Peony Festival) to force domestic suppliers to improve the precision of cultural translation, the depth of technological integration, and the granularity of risk control. It is still at the signal level——a stable procurement scale has not yet formed, but the capability coordinate axis has already been clearly defined. The industry needs to continue observing whether feedback from implementation in 2027 will trigger iterations in tender terms for subsequent years, especially whether Category A weighted items will extend to other solar terms (such as Qingming and Guyu).

Conclusion: The core industry significance of this tender event lies in pushing the 'solar-term cultural experience' from a conceptual cultural-tourism product toward a standardized service module with quantifiable technical indicators, verifiable safety mechanisms, and reusable route models. At present, it is more appropriate to understand it as a supply-side stress test aimed at professional capabilities, rather than a short-term market growth window. The key to a rational response lies in identifying one's own capability gaps in four dimensions—AR content adaptation, bilingual instructional delivery, organization of agricultural practice, and closed-loop safety management—and using this tender as a calibration benchmark rather than betting on the result.

Information source note:
Main source: the second-phase tender announcement for the 'Chinese Solar Terms Cultural Experience Tour' issued by Japan's JTB Group on 2026年4月26日 (available through public channels).
Items for continued observation: the tender Q&A document to be released by JTB before 2026年5月10日, the bid opening results on 2026年5月20日, and dynamic adjustment information during the actual implementation of the project in 2027.