On April 30, 2026, JTB, Japan's largest travel group, released the "2026 Chinese Solar Terms Study Tour Phase II Global Tender," increasing the technical weight of the "Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival" themed route in the overall evaluation system from 22% to 35%. This adjustment directly impacts the design, curriculum development, and sustainable service provision capabilities of Chinese cultural study tour products targeting the Japanese market, and has a substantial impact on sub-sectors such as outbound study tour operators, intangible cultural heritage content providers, bilingual education service providers, and carbon management consulting firms.

Event Overview

On April 30, 2026, Japan's JTB Group officially released the "2026 Chinese Solar Terms Study Tour Phase II Global Tender Document." The document explicitly increases the technical weight of the "Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival" themed route from 22% to 35%, and simultaneously proposes three mandatory bidding requirements: submission of a bilingual (Chinese and Japanese) curriculum syllabus, proof of cooperation with national or provincial intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and a full-cycle carbon footprint calculation report for the route. Currently, the tender is in its second phase, and the winning bidder or implementation timeline has not yet been announced.

Which sub-sectors will be affected?

Outbound study tour product operation agency

Due to a significant increase in weighting, the "Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival" themed tour has received a substantial boost in priority within JTB's global study tour procurement system. The impact is primarily reflected in: a higher threshold for bidding competition, as existing single-faceted cultural tourism programs are no longer sufficient to meet the new evaluation criteria; course depth, teacher qualifications, and low-carbon compliance capabilities have become core selection criteria; and the successful bidder must continuously match bilingual teaching delivery and carbon data tracking capabilities throughout the execution period.

Enterprises providing services for the integration and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage

For the first time, the tender has listed "proof of cooperation with intangible cultural heritage inheritors" as a mandatory entry requirement. The main impacts are as follows: non-temporary and non-nominal cooperation cannot meet compliance requirements; verifiable records of joint course development, public teaching experience, or filing materials with cultural and tourism departments are required; small and medium-sized intangible cultural heritage workshops that lack standardized cooperation processes and document management capabilities will be excluded from the list of qualified suppliers.

Bilingual education curriculum development service provider

The 'Bilingual Curriculum Syllabus' has been changed from a suggestion to a mandatory submission, and is no longer limited to Japanese. The main impacts are as follows: modules such as course objectives, class hour allocation, and assessment methods must be presented in both Chinese and Japanese in a structured manner; language conversion must conform to the terminology standards of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Guidelines for Overseas Training"; and the existing Chinese-dominated curriculum system needs to be systematically localized, rather than simply translated.

Carbon footprint accounting and sustainable tourism service providers

Carbon footprint assessment reports have become a mandatory attachment for tenders, marking the first time that JTB-approved study tour products have been included in mandatory carbon disclosure requirements. The main impacts are: the scope of the assessment must cover transportation connections, accommodation energy consumption, material usage, and emissions from on-site activities; a JTB-approved third-party accounting method (such as GHG Protocol Scope 3 Category 7) must be used; and small and medium-sized service providers without experience in ISO 14064 or PAS 2060 related services will face technical responsiveness challenges.

What key areas should relevant enterprises or practitioners focus on, and how should they respond at present?

Pay attention to subsequent updates to the JTB's Technical Specifications and Carbon Calculation Guidelines.

The current tender document only outlines general requirements; key operational details such as specific course evaluation indicators, standards for assessing the effectiveness of intangible cultural heritage cooperation, and the definition of carbon accounting boundaries have not yet been released. Companies should establish a mechanism to regularly monitor the JTB website's tender section, paying particular attention to any supplementary documents that may be released starting in mid-May.

Distinguish between policy signals of 'increased weighting' and 'increased procurement volume'

The increased weighting reflects a shift in JTB's internal review focus, but it does not directly equate to an increase in order volume or budget for this route. The actual procurement scale still depends on variables such as enrollment rates during the Japanese primary and secondary school spring break, exchange rate fluctuations, and visa facilitation between China and Japan. Companies should not unilaterally expand production capacity or make upfront investments based on this; instead, they should prioritize optimizing the responsiveness of existing solutions.

In advance, review existing resources of intangible cultural heritage cooperation archives and bilingual courses.

Enterprises with existing cooperative relationships should systematically collect teaching records, video materials, and signed documents from partners related to peony-related intangible cultural heritage projects in Luoyang (such as Luoyang Palace Lantern Making Techniques, Heluo Drum, and Tang Sancai Firing Techniques) within the past two years; and simultaneously complete the bilingual structured re-editing of at least one core course module (such as 'Peony Poetry and Solar Terms Philosophy') to avoid inaccurate terminology due to temporary translation.

Initiating preparations for basic carbon accounting data collection

While immediate third-party certification is not necessary, it is essential to establish a basic data record at the route level. This should include average electricity consumption data for partner hotels in Luoyang over the past year, typical vehicle models and fuel consumption per 100 kilometers, and estimated usage of paper teaching aids per group. This data is a prerequisite for the rapid generation of compliant carbon reports.

Editor's Viewpoint / Industry Observation

Observably, this weighting adjustment should be understood as a clear reinforcement of JTB's dual standards of "cultural depth" and "sustainability," rather than a signal of simply expanding the scale of procurement for the Luoyang route. Analysis shows that the 35% weighting is close to the theoretical upper limit of a single theme in this bidding system (the historical high was 38%), indicating that JTB is positioning the Luoyang Peony Festival as a benchmark case for Chinese solar term study tour products. From an industry perspective, this move signifies that mainstream Japanese distributors are accelerating the embedding of ESG factors into the cultural tourism procurement decision-making chain, and similar weighting mechanisms may be extended to cultural hubs such as Xi'an and Hangzhou in the future. Current priority for practitioners is not to chase trends, but to audit existing capabilities against three new hard requirements: bilingual pedagogy, verifiable intangible cultural heritage integration, and transparent carbon accounting.

In conclusion, this weighting adjustment is not an isolated event, but rather a phased manifestation of the shift in the procurement logic for Japanese inbound study tours towards "cultural credibility + environmental verifiability." Its industry significance lies in the fact that it integrates the previously scattered competency requirements across curriculum, intangible cultural heritage, and environmental protection into a single bidding framework for the first time, using quantifiable weights. Currently, it's more accurately understood as a competency calibration reminder—companies do not need to immediately restructure their businesses, but must confirm whether they possess a verifiable foundation for response in the three crucial areas of bilingual curriculum delivery, intangible cultural heritage cooperation implementation, and carbon data traceability.

Information source explanation:
Main source: "2026 Chinese Solar Terms Study Tour Phase II Global Tender" published on the official website of Japan's JTB Group (public version released on April 30, 2026).
The following aspects require continued observation: whether JTB will subsequently release supporting "Implementation Rules for Technical Bids", "Operational Guidelines for Carbon Footprint Calculation", and the final announcement of the winning bid results.