TOKYO, Nov. 21, 2017 – Disappointed with the current nightlife offer for solo travelers in Tokyo, Libra, a Japanese startup, has launched Tokyo Bar Hopping Tour, a tour to take travelers around known alleys in Shinjuku and Shibuya, where locals usually go to have drinks in Tokyo.
Yasuhiro Suzuki, the CEO of Libra says,
“At the same time we started selling tours for overseas travelers, we also started growing our team by hiring overseas members. We quickly realized how broken the assumptions we had about our customers were.”
When Libra Inc. started hiring people from different parts of the world, it soon discovered that the tours it was offering didn’t appeal to them.
They valued genuine interactions with locals and local food tasting above joining a bus trip. They especially enjoyed the nomikai (Japanese: 飲み会, after work party) at small izakaya (Japanese: 居酒屋, taverns). But there was one small thing that intrigued the Japanese team members: their foreign colleagues never went out by themselves at night, so they started asking why, and some common patterns started to emerge:
“I don’t know if this a pub for regular customers only.”
“I can’t communicate well in Japanese.”
“I’m afraid it’s not a safe bar.”
Decided to help them out, they started looking for groups, meetups, tours, and activities that could service their needs. Impressed by the lack of offer on the market, they were determined to pursue this new target audience.
The whole team at Libra Inc.
“There just wasn’t enough offers focusing on nightlife for solo travelers that can live up to capturing Japan’s unique drinking culture. At night the local people become so friendly and outgoing even though they are relatively shy in the daytime.” says Iwase Ryosuke, Marketer at Libra Inc.
Understanding the mindset of a solo traveler that is looking for things to do at night was the main focus of their efforts. “We found out that having genuine human connections was the most important aspect for our target audience.” – Worachet Deeyai, UX researcher at Libra Inc.
Let’s face it: Solo traveling is fun. Solo drinking is not. Period.
Also, guiding these travelers to foreigner’s bars, international parties, or the next tourist trap is just avoiding the problem altogether.
Isn’t traveling all about experiencing the local culture, meeting new people, and having fun?
“Tokyo has a unique nightlife culture. If you don’t have friends in Japan then you end up spending all your vacation nights at the hotel which will cause you to miss out on this important aspect of Japanese culture.” – Yasuhiro Suzuki, CEO at Libra Inc.
[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]Tokyo Bar Hopping’s mission is to make travelers experience a night out like the locals do.
People are already enjoying traveling solo during the day, we want to provide memorable experiences that travelers will love, during the night as well.[/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]
[/su_column][/su_row]In the near future, this Japanese start-up hopes to become a platform for connecting solo travelers with locals.
“Traveling Solo? Let’s Drink Together.” – The Libra Inc. team.
About the Tokyo Bar Hopping Tour at Japanese Local Taverns in Shinjuku
This Bar Hopping Tour in Shinjuku is the best-selling tour that offers an authentic experience of local bars that are normally hard to find for tourists. It also helps travelers be exposed to local people, local community as well as other travelers that are in Tokyo.
Tokyo Bar Hopping Product Page
About Magical Trip
MagicalTrip, launched in Sep 2017 and run by Libra Inc. , is a travel online booking platform that allows users to book unique tours in Tokyo created by local experts. It plans to release products in other cities of Japan and other countries in near future.
About the company
Established in 2014, Libra Inc. develops and operates several web medias. In 2017, the company launched an online travel booking site MagicalTrip. Now, the company, consists of 15 employees from over 7 different countries, focusing mainly on unique night tours & activities that travelers can experience the authentic nightlife in Japan.
Contact – We’d love to be interviewed, collaborate & create articles with you!
Ryosuke Iwase
Libra Inc. (www.libra.co.jp)
Email: support@magical-trip.com
Phone: +81 3 6280 4232
