On December 12, 2024, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) issued a notice urging boards of education nationwide to flexibly reconsider the timing of school excursions, encouraging them to avoid peak periods when chartered buses and accommodations are difficult to secure. About a year and a half later, as of June 2026, Kyoto’s ADR stands at ¥40,100 and Tokyo’s at ¥34,800, both posting double-digit YoY increases. Drawing on data from MetroEngines Research, this article examines how the price levels during May-June, the main season for school trips, have diverged from the budget caps for group block bookings; surveys business hotel ADRs in alternative destinations across the Greater Kanto, Tohoku, and Kyushu regions; and outlines the market impact if seasonal dispersion advances from FY2027 onward.

MEXT’s Call and the Persistent May-June Concentration

The notice issued by MEXT in December 2024, titled “On the Flexible Consideration of School Excursion Timing,” called for avoiding the traditional peak periods of May-June and September-December against the backdrop of overtime regulations on chartered bus drivers (the so-called 2024 problem) and the tightening of accommodation supply due to the surge in inbound visitors. Co-signed by the Japan Tourism Agency, it included a peak/off-peak calendar by prefecture, formally positioning seasonal dispersion of educational travel as a policy agenda.

However, looking across the FY2026 school trip plans, the structure in which May-June implementation dominates at both junior high and high school levels remains largely unchanged. School event calendars, regular exam schedules, and entrance-exam preparation periods reflect constraints unique to educational settings that cannot easily be shifted. Meanwhile, inbound demand is intensifying year by year, and hotel markets in the Kansai and Tokyo metropolitan areas now overlap structurally between the seasons when educational travel was traditionally easy to schedule and the inbound peak.

Source: MetroEngines Research, compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team

The chart above overlays monthly ADRs for Kyoto and Tokyo across 2024, 2025, and 2026. Kyoto was nearly flat at ¥34,400 in June 2024 and ¥34,500 in June 2025, but surged to ¥40,100 in June 2026, a +16.4% YoY jump. Tokyo followed a similar pattern, rising to ¥34,800 in June 2026, +15.1% YoY. The price levels in Kyoto and Tokyo, the two principal destinations for school trips, have thus risen by more than 15% from when the MEXT notice was issued at the end of 2024.

Group Block Bookings vs Actual Price Levels

Lodging budgets for school trips are typically capped by each school operator. Many municipalities use ¥10,000-¥13,000 per night per student for public junior high schools, and ¥13,000-¥17,000 for public high schools. These figures are per student, so converted to two guests per room, the de facto upper limit ranges from ¥20,000 to the low ¥30,000s per room.

Source: MetroEngines Research, compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team

Kyoto’s ¥40,100 in June reaches near the upper end of the per-student budget cap even when narrowed to business hotels at ¥23,200, and the all-category average that includes city hotels and ryokan is at a level where group block bookings simply cannot be assembled. In practice, hotels often set aside a designated school-trip allotment of rooms separately, but those allotments have been shrinking each year as inbound demand intensifies.

Tokyo’s ¥34,800 reflects the same dynamic, with the business hotel category in the 23 wards in particular climbing to ¥28,900. The traditional model of staying in the 23 wards while conducting study programs across the city is becoming difficult within budget caps, and a growing number of schools are forced to disperse to the outer Tokyo metropolitan area, including Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa.

Source: MetroEngines Research, compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team

Alternative Business Hotels: Greater Kanto, Tohoku, and Kyushu

What deserves attention is the business hotel market in regions outside the traditional school-trip destinations. The table below summarizes areas where group blocks can realistically be arranged within budget and where rooms suitable for group reception are easier to secure. All figures are June 2026 average ADRs for the business hotel category.

Source: MetroEngines Research, compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team

Source: MetroEngines Research, compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team

The business hotel average ADR in Fukushima and Miyazaki sits in the ¥14,000s, more than 40% lower than Kyoto and nearly 50% lower than Tokyo. Iwate, Kumamoto, and Ibaraki also fall within the ¥16,000s, comfortably within the budget envelope for forming school-trip group blocks. With sell-out rates of 10-15%, lower than the inbound-concentrated regions, these areas are also structurally easier for securing group allotments.

What is noteworthy is that each of these regions offers a clearly defined educational appeal. Disaster studies (the Tohoku prefectures), peace studies (Hiroshima), community engagement and rural village experiences (Miyazaki, Kumamoto), and science and technology (Ibaraki) provide learning opportunities distinct from the temple and city-culture programs of Kyoto and Tokyo. These regions are emerging as practical alternatives both on price and on group reception capacity.

Seasonal Dispersion Scenarios from FY2027 Onward

So how would prices actually behave if seasonal dispersion advanced? Looking at Kyoto’s monthly ADR trajectory, we can see the gap between the May-June peak and other periods outside the current off-peak (the hot July-August window).

Source: MetroEngines Research, compiled by HotelBank Editorial Team

Kyoto’s 2025-2026 monthly trajectory suggests that shifting school trips to autumn or later may not necessarily be advantageous from a market standpoint. With October 2025 at ¥41,000, November at ¥47,500, and December at ¥44,700, the autumn-foliage season pushes Kyoto’s ADR even higher than the early-summer peak. Similarly, March 2026 at ¥46,500 and April at ¥50,300 mark the year’s highest levels during the cherry blossom and new-fiscal-year season.

By contrast, September comes in at ¥35,500, close to June’s ¥34,500, a period when competition with inbound demand is comparatively mild. If school trips were to shift into early September or mid-to-late February (the inbound troughs), Kyoto’s business hotel average could plausibly fall to the ¥18,000s. However, balancing these windows against school event calendars and entrance-exam preparation periods will be a challenge, making cross-cutting coordination among boards of education, MEXT, and the Japan Tourism Agency essential.

Another structural change: if seasonal dispersion of school trips advances, business hotel operators will also be affected. Regional business hotels have long struggled with the gap between weekday business demand and weekend leisure demand, and school trip groups occupy a unique segment characterized by weekday volume at low unit prices. If the season disperses, school trips may become an even more important stable revenue source for these regional business hotels.

Structural Shifts Required of the Educational Travel Industry

The price impact of MEXT’s call may be limited within a single year, but over a 3-5 year horizon it could drive structural change across the educational travel industry as a whole. First, destination diversification. Toyama, the various Tohoku prefectures, and inland Kyushu, regions that have not traditionally been primary candidates for school trips, are now becoming options when assessed jointly on price and group reception capacity.

Second, seasonal dispersion. If September and February implementation cases increase from FY2027 onward, Kyoto and Nara’s off-peak demand could be lifted, advancing year-round ADR smoothing. This aligns with the Japan Tourism Agency’s policy of leveling tourism demand throughout the year.

Third, a rate-structure overhaul. The traditional model of carving out a school-trip allotment in the annual schedule and offering it at low fixed rates has already become a burden in a hotel industry where dynamic pricing is mainstream, and hotels themselves are increasingly calling for a review of the rate framework. Public dialogue channels between boards of education and the lodging industry will need to be more formally established.

Summary

Kyoto’s June 2026 ADR of ¥40,100 and Tokyo’s of ¥34,800 stand in clear divergence from traditional school-trip budget caps. The seasonal dispersion called for by MEXT in December 2024 is an urgent issue for the educational travel industry, but in practice, school-calendar constraints make short-term dispersion difficult. Meanwhile, alternative destinations such as Fukushima, Miyazaki, Iwate, Kumamoto, and Ibaraki offer business hotel ADRs in the ¥14,000-¥16,000 range, fitting within budget caps and possessing clearly defined educational themes.

Under a scenario in which seasonal dispersion advances to some degree from FY2027 onward, the inbound troughs of September and February are likely to be utilized, and school trips may take on a more prominent role as a stable revenue source for regional business hotels. The advancement of school-trip programs and their linkage with regional content will become a medium-to-long-term theme for both the education and hotel industries.