Plaza Premium Group and JWIDE co-create innovative travel experiences

Plaza Premium Group (PPG) and Japanese tourism specialist JWIDE have teamed up to unveil a first-of-its-kind hospitality service – the City Terminal by Plaza Premium Lounge, in the Osaka area to serve all travellers, regardless of whether they are taking a plane, train or bus.

Established in 1998 and headquartered in Hong Kong, Plaza Premium Group (PPG) has emerged as a player in the global airport hospitality industry. Currently, PPG has one of the largest networks of international airport lounges, spanning 13 brands across more than 80 airports in 30 countries.

The City Terminal is a joint venture between PPG and JWIDE, bringing together PPG’s expertise in travel hospitality with JWIDE’s specialisation in the Japanese inbound travel market, with the aim of co-creating unique and innovative travel experiences.

In an email to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, JWIDE states that " As a global company...we can create marketing opportunities that are engaging and can be crafted. In our Osaka lounge, we have a LED wrap screen on the facade, we have partnership opportunities where we can curate branded experience and we can also upsell value-added experiences for a start."

This aligns with the convenient positioning of the lounge in the heart of Osaka, a bustling commercial hub, to be conveniently accessible by various modes of transportation, including buses and trains. The City Lounge is situated within all the major tourist areas within Osaka, as well as within the transportation routes that lead to nearby cities of Kyoto, Nara, and Nagoya. Currently, JWIDE aims to expand to other Japanese cities such as Kyoto, Tokyo, Fukuoka, and Sapporo.

Staff at the lounge will provide travel advice and detailed tourist information from the travel concierge, according to the release. Visitors to the lounge can receive information about local hidden gems, booking for transportation tickets, and arrangement of limousine services.

Furthermore, the lounge team can provide services in multiple languages including Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, so that all travellers, regardless of whether they are using the lounge, can ask questions.

To ensure that travellers can continue to taste and see the local delights in between their journey in and out of Osaka, the lounge also offers temporary luggage storage and delivery services. Currency exchange and umbrella loans are also available at the lounge.

“Since our founding 26 years ago, PPG is known for our award-winning, independent global network of airport lounges,” said Mei Mei Song (pictured), director of global brand and transformation, PPG.

“The City Terminal is an extension of our mission to make travel better, regardless of where that journey is happening. We are delighted to bring the practice of caring hospitality that we have honed in airports to this unique lounge, and we hope that this will make Osaka an even more welcoming destination for visitors," she added.

 “With the increase in foreign visitors to Japan, it is essential for the country to provide better services and hospitality. We aim to make Japan a more convenient, reliable, safe, and comfortable destination for both foreign visitors and Japanese residents.” said Teppei Nishino, founder and CEO of JWIDE.

“To this end, we have partnered with Plaza Premium Group to establish our first City Terminal in Osaka Umeda. Moving forward, we plan to expand City Terminals and Lounges to major terminal stations, city centres and airports nationwide. Our goal is to support tourism, business trips and local sightseeing in Japan," Nishino added.

In the coming years, JWIDE and Plaza Premium Group aims to collaborate with hotels, airlines and online travel agencies to develop bundled deals for co-marketing opportunities in order to tap into each other's customer bases, an email from the partnership sent to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reads.

Related articles:

Plaza Premium Lounge launches first-ever global campaign, releases new video
Plaza Premium Group and YQ Now announce air travel partnership