Japan's largest travel group, JTB, officially launched the second global tender for the 2026 “Chinese Solar Terms Study Tour Group” on April 28, 2026, clearly listing the technical feasibility, depth of cultural interpretation, and quality of bilingual guided tours for the “Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival” themed route as the three core scoring items, with a combined weighting of 55%. The winning bidder must commit to guaranteeing daily group transportation capacity for 30 people or more during the 2026 peony blooming season (April 10–May 10). This event has a direct transmission effect on sub-sectors such as outbound study tour product design, inbound cultural and tourism services, cross-cultural educational content development, and regional cultural and tourism resource integration, and is worthy of close attention from relevant enterprises and frontline practitioners.

Event Overview

Japan's JTB Group issued the second global tender announcement for the 2026 “Chinese Solar Terms Study Tour Group” on April 28, 2026. The announcement clearly designates the technical feasibility, depth of cultural interpretation, and quality of bilingual guided tours of the “Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival” themed route proposal as the three core scoring items, with a total weighting of 55%. The winning bidder must ensure daily group transportation capacity for 30 people or more from April 10 to May 10, 2026. At present, the tender has entered the public solicitation stage, and details such as the specific deadline, bidder qualification thresholds, or the composition of the evaluation committee have not been disclosed.

Which Sub-sectors Will Be Affected

Outbound Study Tour Product Planning and Suppliers

As the tender focuses on the dual themes of “solar terms” and “peony culture” and emphasizes technical feasibility and depth of cultural interpretation, such enterprises need to simultaneously improve their capabilities in on-site route design and cultural translation. The impact is mainly reflected in the following aspects: existing general-purpose solar term course packages are unlikely to meet the scoring requirements; collaboration mechanisms with Luoyang's local cultural and museum institutions and university research teams need to be strengthened; bilingual guided tour content must pass JTB standard certification and cannot meet the standard through simple translation alone.

Inbound Cultural and Tourism Ground Service Providers (especially in Luoyang, Henan as a key region)

The tender explicitly requires daily group transportation capacity for 30 people or more during the blooming season, which means that local ground operators in Luoyang with compliant qualifications, multilingual service capabilities, and peak-season load flexibility will benefit directly. The impact is mainly reflected in the following aspects: conventional FIT reception capability does not constitute a bidding advantage; bidders need to prove full-chain performance stability in vehicle use, interpretation services, venue reservations, and other aspects from mid-April to early May; the number of bilingual guides and their training records will become rigid verification items.

Cross-cultural Educational Content R&D Institutions

Depth of cultural interpretation is listed as one of the three core scoring items, accounting for a significant proportion of the weighting. The impact is mainly reflected in the following aspects: purely scenic-spot introduction texts are no longer suitable; it is necessary to provide solar term knowledge maps that can be embedded into study tour itineraries, as well as interpretive materials integrating peony botany and historical semiotics; all content must match the cognitive level of Japanese middle school students and be verified through a bilingual review process.

Cultural and Tourism IP Operations and Festival Event Executors

As the only specifically named themed festival, the Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival's IP licensing methods, on-site interactive module design, and derivative content supply capabilities may all be included in the evaluation dimensions. The impact is mainly reflected in the following aspects: merely participating in single-day event execution cannot demonstrate the integrity of a “route proposal”; reusable and quantitatively assessable cultural experience design documents must be provided (such as AR guided tour scripts and handicraft workshop lesson plans); alignment with JTB's existing educational philosophy (such as inquiry-based learning PBL) will become an implicit screening criterion.

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

Pay Close Attention to the Subsequent Tender Details and Qualification List Released by JTB

The current announcement does not specify whether consortium bidding is accepted, whether Chinese entities are required to apply independently, or whether there are limits on the years of China-foreign cooperation. Relevant enterprises should continue to track updates on JTB China's official website and the procurement portal of its Japan headquarters, especially paying attention to the specific definition of “quality of bilingual guided tours” (for example, whether JLPT N1 certification is required and whether third-party language assessment reports are accepted).

Focus on Preparing Capacity Credentials and Service Records During the Luoyang Peony Blooming Season Window

“Daily group transportation capacity for 30 people or more” is a rigid commitment item. Enterprises should sort out in advance actual reception data for the same period in 2025, vehicle filing information, tour guide IC card status, and reservation agreements with core venues such as Wangcheng Park/China National Flower Garden, forming a verifiable supporting package of performance capability, so as to avoid responding to bid document requirements only with subjective statements such as “having the capability.”

Differentiate Between Evaluation “Signals” and the Pace of Business “Implementation”

This tender is a second-phase project within the annual procurement plan and does not mean that the whole year's orders have been locked in. There is a clear time gap between the announcement of the winning result, contract signing, and the departure of the first group. Enterprises should not immediately expand the recruitment scale of full-time bilingual guides, but should prioritize launching internal assessment of key staff's language capabilities and in-house training on solar term culture, while simultaneously testing small-batch trial routes (such as weekend micro study tours for Japanese families living in China) to accumulate real service data.

Coordinate in Advance with Luoyang Cultural and Tourism Authorities to Complete Preliminary Communication on Content Compliance

Depth of cultural interpretation involves sensitive dimensions such as historical narratives, plant protection policies, and the current status of intangible cultural heritage inheritance. It is recommended that before the formal bid, informal consultations be conducted with the Luoyang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism or the academic department of the Luoyang Museum regarding the intended peony culture interpretation framework, descriptions of the relationship between solar terms and farming, and cited versions of ancient poetry, so as to avoid content-level compliance risks.

Editorial Viewpoint / Industry Observation

Observably, this tender is not an isolated procurement action, but a key node in JTB's transformation of “Chinese Solar Terms” from a conceptual IP into a standardized study tour product. Its placing of the Luoyang Peony Festival at the center of the weighting is more like a structural signal—that mainstream Japanese channels are shifting from broad Chinese-style tourism toward the selection of concrete, verifiable, and teachable cultural carriers. Analysis shows, the 55% weighting allocation indicates that the quality of cultural content has surpassed traditional factors such as transportation and accommodation, becoming the core variable determining market entry. What is more worthy of attention at present is whether this standard will extend to other solar term routes (such as Hangzhou Longjing tea affairs and the Anji Bamboo Culture Festival); and whether the “quality of bilingual guided tours” will drive the industry to establish a third-party certification mechanism for language service capabilities. The industry needs to continue observing the subsequent service delivery reports of the winning bidder from the first phase, rather than focusing only on this tender itself.

Conclusion

The core message released by this JTB tender is: Chinese solar term study tour products for the Japanese market have entered a professional stage in which depth of cultural interpretation serves as the watershed. It is not a routine procurement update, but an explicit manifestation of a capability screening mechanism. At present, it is more appropriate to understand it as a dual market-entry signal regarding “content professionalism” and “certainty of regional service delivery,” rather than a preview of short-term order opportunities. Relevant enterprises should focus on capability building, rationally assess their real shortcomings in cultural translation, peak-season fulfillment, and cross-system collaboration, and avoid misreading the tender as a traffic-dividend window.

Source Information Note

Main source: the second global tender announcement for the “Chinese Solar Terms Study Tour Group” released by Japan's JTB Group on April 28, 2026 (the complete attachment has not been disclosed through official channels). Items pending continued observation: bid submission deadline, composition of the evaluation committee, timing of the public announcement of winning results, and the execution date of the first group.