Masabi and Jorudan Add Popular Meiko Bus Tourist Route to Japan’s Biggest Integrated Mobile Ticketing And Journey Planning Platform
1, 2 and 3-day bus passes now available in Jorudan’s MaaS apps in both English and Japanese for Wakayama and Shirahama tourist routes
London, UK and Tokyo, Japan – 15th March 2021 Masabi the company bringing Fare Payments as-a-Service to public transport and Jorudan, Japan’s leading trip planning and MaaS service, today announced that they have launched mobile ticketing with Meiko Bus, including the operator’s popular Shirahama Onsen route. The Shirahama area, on the southern coast of Wakayama Prefecture, is one of the leading resort areas in Honshu island, and attracts more than 3 million tourists a year. Passengers are now able to purchase all 1, 2 and 3-day passes for bus travel via the Japan Transit Planner and the Norikae Annai apps, in both English and Japanese.
The partnership between Jorudan and Masabi has seen them integrate the Justride mobile ticketing SDK into its market-leading transit apps, meaning once an operator signs up to the service, tickets can be quickly made available in the applications, creating a seamless user experience for the passenger and rapid onboarding to mobile ticketing for the transport operator.
“Working with Jorudan we have built Japan’s biggest integrated mobile ticketing and journey planning platform, giving people access to travel services via a device and interface they are familiar with, even when they’re somewhere new. Tourists visiting Shirahama with Meiko Bus will now be able to purchase tickets and ride this popular route via an intuitive and familiar purchase process, saving time and hassle,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “The continued progress of transport operators integrating their services into Jorudan’s apps is testament to their convenience and usability, and we are extremely happy to see our ticketing offering expand and progress in the Japanese market.”
“Shirahama is one of Japan’s leading tourist destinations, and this is a route popular with visitors. Adding mobile ticketing makes great sense, as it will save time and hassle for families when buying tickets and boarding buses – transforming the experience to be quick and easy, and giving them more time to enjoy the beautiful area,” said Toshikazu Sato, CEO of Jorudan. “As travel and tourism restart throughout 2021 and beyond it’s brilliant to be able to keep adding this technology to services across Japan, giving locals and tourists alike added convenience and easier journeys.”
Jorudan’s Japan Transit Planner and Norikae Annai journey planning apps are available to download from Google Play and the App Store.
About Jorudan:
Jorudan, founded in December 1979, aims to become the “number one travel tech company” by providing a broad selection of products from journey planning based software, mobile content, travel agency services and gaming. Jorudan’s core service, the Norikae Annai (Transit Route Search) app, has more than 38 million downloads and supports countless passengers with public transportation. In July 2018, Jorudan established J MaaS to seek participation from companies and organisations interested in joining their transit service platform.
About Masabi:
Masabi is bringing Fare Payments-as-a-Service — a better way of delivering fare payments — to public transit agencies and authorities of all sizes around the globe. This enables the delivery of the latest fare payment innovations quickly, using a platform which is constantly updating and adding new features. Not only does this improve the journey experience for passengers, but it helps agencies keep up with the pace of technology change, while reducing the total cost of fare collection. Justride, named Ticketing Technology of the Year 2019 and 2020, is used by more than 100 public transit agencies and operators of all sizes across 10 countries. Masabi has offices in New York, Denver, London, and Cluj, and investors include Mastercard, Shell, and Keolis. For more information, visit www.masabi.com.
