JTB has forecasted that the number of Japanese travelers in the summer vacation period this year (July 15 to August 31) will increase by 0.8% year on year to 74.6 million in total. Out of the total, domestic travelers are expected to be up 0.3% to 72.2 million even though prices are still rising overall. Outbound travelers are expected to increase by 20.8% year on year to 2.44 million primarily because of slight stronger yen than a year ago and the recovery of international flight seats.
The total travel consumption is expected to increase by 8.2% year on year to 4,026 billion yen, which are divided into 3,321 billion yen for domestic travels (up 4.8%) and 705.2 billion yen for outbound travels (up 27.4%).
The average travel expenses are forecasted at 46,000 yen per domestic traveler, 4.5% more than a year ago, and at 289,000 yen per outbound traveler, 5.5% more than a year ago due to depreciation of the yen, higher costs and longer-range travel.
Travel to Europe is more selected than before
Japanese domestic travelers are interested in ‘places to enjoy nature (32%)’ and ‘zoo or aquarium (14.8%)’, and they want to ‘visit photogenic destinations (16.5%),’ ‘reduce mental and physical stresses (14.4%)’ and ‘spend times in nature (14.4%),’ according to the JTB survey.
The most-selected travel companion is ‘family with kids (21.9%),’ and the most-selected place to stay is ‘hotel (63.6%),’ followed by ‘ryokan (23.5%).’
The JTB’s domestic package tour booking status showed that Okinawa, where a new amusement park ‘JUNGLIA OKINAWA’ opens on July 25, and Kansai, where Osaka Kansai EXPO is held, are particularly preferred.
The most popular overseas destination is ‘Europe (16.8%)’ and ‘South Korea (16.8%)’ followed by ‘Taiwan (13.9%)’ and ‘Southeast Asia (13.9%).’ JTB said that the demands are polarized into short-range and long-range destinations.
For JTB overseas package tour, bookings for Hawaii, Taiwan and U.S. have increased, and tours with MLB game tickets in the west coast of U.S. have been sold well.