Omachi City Unveils Smart AI On-Demand Bus Service with SWAT Mobility to Boost Tourism Spending

4 mins

SWAT Mobility Japan is introducing an AI-powered on-demand transportation system connecting major tourist spots in Omachi City, designed to enhance convenience for both domestic and international visitors.

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The city has long operated the fixed-route sightseeing bus, Gururin-go, serving around 2.6 million annual tourists. However, the service faced challenges: an average wait time of 40 minutes and a ride time of 37 minutes meant visitors could typically only explore one or two attractions per day. This limited mobility curtailed opportunities for extended stays and travel to multiple destinations, reducing potential tourism spending. With inbound foreign overnight visitors rebounding from just 139 in 2021 to over 40,000 in 2023, there was a growing need for a more user-friendly transport system tailored to international tourists.

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To address this, SWAT Mobility conducted a simulation using boarding and alighting data from the Gururin-go. The results showed potential reductions of 26.5 minutes in waiting time and 22.5 minutes in ride time compared with the conventional fixed-route bus, demonstrating a significant improvement in convenience and efficiency.

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By implementing AI-driven on-demand transport, SWAT Mobility aims to increase regional tourism consumption by enabling visitors to explore more attractions through shorter wait and travel times, while providing a user-friendly secondary transport option for inbound tourists. This initiative will strengthen secondary transportation in Omachi City and help position the city as a dynamic tourist destination that fully leverages its regional assets.

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Gururin-go Wait Time: Fixed-Route vs. On-Demand Transport

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Gururin-go Ride Time: Fixed-Route vs. On-Demand Transport

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SWAT Mobility will deploy an AI-powered on-demand transportation system featuring its proprietary dynamic routing algorithm. By integrating Zenrin’s detailed road network data with machine-learning-based travel speed insights, the system ensures efficient operations and a smooth, comfortable ride experience. To optimise ridesharing and passenger capacity, it continuously analyses travel data, such as booking success rates and ride time trends, and fine-tunes over 200 configurable parameters to progressively enhance service performance.

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