Konomy
AI travel consultant
Konomy AI travel consultant helps you discover interesting places in Japan that you may not have considered before. It does so by analyzing your preferred travel style and interests and comparing it to a large database of users and survey data. If you want to experience deep Japan, off the beaten track, Konomy will assist you in your travel planning.
How to contribute
Step 1
Respond to 7 simple questions about your next trip to Japan, indicating your preferred style of traveling.
Step 2
Konomy will analyze your preferences by comparing your responses to a large dataset of other users and survey data.
Step 3
Please choose 3 spots that are the most attractive to you out of a list of 10.
Step 4
Konomy will check whether its hypothesis about your 3 top spots matches your answer.
Konomy will be released to the public after we have collected additional survey data from at least 1500 users. Please help us launch as soon as possible by taking part in the survey and sharing this page with your friends.
Konomy helps you discover deep Japan!
Together let's make Konomy the smartest tool for travelers to Japan!
Konomy's development has already finished, but we need your help to make it even smarter. The system is based on machine learning which means that the more data we put in, the more accurate recommendations we get out of it. Please help to contribute!
Why are we developing Konomy?
Many first-time travelers who come to Japan know little about the country and end up visiting only the most commonly-known destinations, such as Tokyo, and the Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, etc.). This means they miss out on many authentic experiences off the beaten track.
In addition, the fact that foreign visitors are concentrated in such a small number of locations poses challenges to local governments in Japan. The number of international visitors exceeds 30 million annually and is increasing at a fast pace (19.3% in 2017) in the lead up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There is a risk that the volume of visitors may exceed the capacity of accommodation and public transport networks in some locations across the densely-populated prefectures. Meanwhile, many attractive destinations in Japan go unnoticed, not benefitting from such influxes of visitors to Japan.
Our development of Konomy is part of our efforts to address these issues and contribute to creating unique experiences that benefit both travelers and local economies. In creating recommended travel plans, Konomy analyzes travelers’ preferences and needs in order to find places that are the best match for them and their individual interests, regardless of whether they already know about a destination or not. Most travel websites only allow users to search based on categories and locations they already know about. In contrast, Konomy allows users to discover new things independent of their previous knowledge and ideas.
Who is developing Konomy?
Konomy is jointly developed by EXest Inc. and Fujitsu. You may not have heard about EXest before – we are a Tokyo-based private tour company and run the C2C platform WOW U. Our vision is to bring together people who would not otherwise have been able to meet. We do this by encouraging more visitors to explore lesser known places in Japan, providing inspiration and information through our media site WOW U-media and on our Facebook page. In all that we do we try to combine both cutting-edge technology and local knowledge. In the case of Konomy, we combine machine learning with human curation. Tour guides with a national certification who register on the WOW U platform will be able to participate in the curation of content, making use of their many years of experience physically interacting with real visitors from around the world.
