It is not an overstatement to say that the history of the Japanese travel industry is tightly bound up with the package tour. Through the efforts of travel companies, package tours have been customized to Japanese travelers, and have played a major role in bringing overseas travel to the mass market. Excessive competition and aggressive selling, however, have led to reduced product quality, and also resulted in wastage and attrition among companies within the industry. Furthermore, the range of problems that have arisen in relation to package tours has had an impact on the industry's relationships with airlines and overseas suppliers, resulting in structural issues that still exist today. This paper examines the history of the package tour, and reconsiders its merits and demerits, identifying relevant problems and issues and proposing an image for future package tours. The economic situation surrounding package tours is currently extremely severe, with many wholesalers in particular facing an extremely uncertain future. The Japanese travel industry now needs to reconsider both its conceptual and structural approach, in order to transform itself into an industry that can create value over the long term.