English Website and Global Discoverability
The first English-language website in the group’s history, built for travelers and for the AI systems they ask.
The situation
Inbound tourism to Japan is at record levels, but the group’s story lived almost entirely in Japanese. A first English website has to do several jobs at once: introduce a heritage brand to travelers who have never heard of it, hold luxury positioning, read clearly for non-native English speakers, and be discoverable by search engines and by AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude, where a growing share of travel planning now happens.
What we did
- Page-by-page UX, copy, and structure review across all six destinations: Awaji Island, Kobe, Kyoto, Lake Biwa, Okayama, and Shikoku
- A copywriting standard for international guests: mobile-first paragraphs, Japanese cultural terms defined at first use, and luxury storytelling balanced with the practical information guests need to book
- Navigation and information architecture recommendations, priority-ranked so the client team could act on them immediately
- A complete image alt text system across the site, written accessibility-first and tuned for search, covering destination pages, hotels, rooms, and dining
- SEO and LLM discoverability: page structure and language designed so both search engines and AI assistants can find, understand, and recommend the group
Where it stands
The group now speaks to international guests directly, in its own voice, across every destination it operates. The copy standard and alt text system are living tools the client team continues to apply as the site grows.
Design for international guests
We help Japanese hospitality groups tell their story to the world.
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