The Parliament passed legislation that will legalize home-sharing, otherwise known as "Minpaku". Initially the main beneficiary will be Airbnb, who now becomes the first U.S. sharing economy company to make it big in Japan.

An interesting peek into one slice of Japan's travel industry future can be found from a pair of law suits presently going on in the USA between the ex-CEO of Zozi.com, TJ Sassani, and the company's largest shareholder, KLP Enterprises.

I was introduced to one entity in China and we were discussing the best places to run adventure tours. Mostly the conversation was about remote regions that have very few domestic let alone foreign tourists ...

Tink Labs, had just raised US$125m to implement an ambitious plan to put a free smart phone into every room of every participating hotel chain in all major tourist destinations in Europe, North America, and Asia.