Young Entrepreneur Succeeding in the Travel Industry

Tabi Capital Corp.

At present one company is receiving much attention in the online travel business – Tabi Capital Corp led by 25-year-old president, YOSHIMURA Hideki. Mr. Yoshimura set up Valcom Co. Ltd. in 2003 while he was a student of the University of Tokyo, and launched domestic travel site “Airs Gate.” He later expanded his company and in 2007 set up holding company Tabi Capital (company capital: 12.5 million yen), and branched out into overseas travel.

In addition to “Airs Gate,” he presently operates “ekoukuuken.com” and the overseas travel website “Tabiweb” that introduces overseas hotels, air tickets and local tours. Thirty-five staff at the company answer constantly ringing telephones and use their expertise of travel to give advice to callers. There is also a site in which travelers can examine their travel plans in an itinerary form. The content of the site is attractive. The number of repeat customers is quite high.

Mr. Yoshimura made up his mind to enter the department of economics at the University of Tokyo and then build up his own company when he was a junior high school student. His father owns a food manufacturing company and he has also been influenced by Bill GATES, who was becoming well known at the time. In addition, he has some company owners among his seniors and friends.

While he was a university student he worked as an intern in a company set up by one of his older friends. Three years later he created his own company. He also made a royalty contract with the Hanshin Tigers the year they won the league, and sold products with their logo mark or players’ images printed on them. The Hanshin Tigers canned coffee sold out, but he learnt it is hard to sell products that require stock, so he decided to make travel, which he loves, his product.

It has been only five years since he set up the company. As various famous travel agents are already working in this world, he found out it is difficult to compete with them using brand names, so he started to provide travel contents as OEM. Tabi Capital runs about 350 sites that sell travel under each site’s branded name. He is busy every day creating and maintaining the systems.

“I am very happy when projects are successful, when I can understand my co-workers and when I feel we are making progress,” says Mr. Yoshimura. He knows it is very important to build up a relationship of mutual trust all the more since he has been involved in unifying management and buying a company. However, he added “there is no problem with being young.”

“The number of tourists going overseas from Japan remains approximately 17 million people a year. I want to make efforts to do something good for the tourists who come to Japan from overseas. I want to float the company on the stock exchange. I also care for the customers who support our company and want them to feel more satisfied,” says Mr. Yoshimura of his future aspirations.

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