In his latest monthly “hitorigoto” (a monologue to one’s self), Hiromi Tagawa, chairman of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) and former president and CEO of JTB sketched out a profile of the country’s outbound travel activity. While hard data were scant, Tagawa reported the following:
- The percentage of travelers comprising leisure overseas travelers in 2016 stayed at 13.6 percent, showing no significant fluctuations since 2014.
- For a third consecutive year, Taiwan ranked No 1 as the most preferred overseas destination, while Hawaii was No 2 followed by South Korea.
- Taiwan was the favorite of family, couples, friends, solo, and child-parent pair travelers.
- The destinations which travelers enjoyed best were Western Europe, followed by Eastern Europe. Five out of the ten most desired destinations were European countries and regions (Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Germany, Italy and Northern Europe in descending order).
- Among the ten most desired destinations were also the USA West Coast, Hawaii (Oahu), Hawaii (other than Oahu), and the USA East Coast (in descending order).
- For 2017, Hawaii (Oahu) is expected to be the most preferred destination, followed by Taiwan and South Korea.
- The number of overseas travelers is expected to grow by 7 percent to 8 percent in 2017.
- For a tenth successive year, Italy will keep its rank as the most desired destination for travel in the immediate future. France is expected to improve its position compared to 2014 and move up a rank higher.
- In the category “Destinations which travelers would like to visit in the future,” Hawaii ranked the highest, Italy came in second and Australia was third. France lost its second place, getting down to No 4.
JTB to Use 2020 Olympics to Help Make it Global Travel Brand: Meanwhile, Tagawa’s successor as president and CEO of JTB, Hiroyuki Takahashi, said in a statement posted on the company’s website that, “In order to realize long-term and stable growth in the future, the JTB Group has renewed its resolve … of establishing an overwhelming No.1 position in the Asian market.”
But the company is not stopping in Asia, he added, asserting that “moving forward, we will engage in full-fledged development of our business model, from one that has until now considered human interactions predominantly in terms of outbound travel from Japan, to a model that is global in outlook, with a focus on Asia. We aim to create a global brand that will provide perfect moments and happiness to all our customers around the world.”
Takahashi also noted that, since Tokyo has been chosen as the host of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, “the world’s attention is focused on Japan’s unique culture, products, and services, and the number of foreign visitors to Japan is increasing dramatically. Through our global businesses, we look forward to helping achieve Japan’s goal of establishing itself as a tourism-oriented country and contributing to the development of the tourism industry.”
As outbound travel numbers from Japan to the United States remain stuck in a rut, the Japanese travel trade is sustaining a recovery in overall outbound travel volume and, at the same time, migrating to online travel bookings away from traditional travel distribution channels by consumers.
The results of the latest Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) quarterly survey of the Japanese travel trade suggests that the outlook for Visit USA/North America traffic from the second largest overseas source market for the United States is not much different for the peak travel months of July through September 2017 than it was a year ago (April through June 2016). In fact, the numbers have not changed very much in the past three years. What changes there are in the quarterly report appear to be in the market segments within the Japanese population. (We’ve included the two most important tables from the survey below. It’s relatively easy to translate the value of the numbers in the tables; just refer to “A Note on Methodology” following the tables.)
Perhaps it’s related to the American expression, “thinking out loud,” but Hitomi Tagawa, the former CEO of JTB and now the chairman of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) used “Hitorigoto” in Japanese—it means “murmuring to oneself”—to describe a message in which he urged fellow Japanese, including travel professionals, to take time off and relax.
New Group Aims to Boost Japanese Outbound Traveler Count to 20 Million a Year: According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 17,116,200 Japanese traveled overseas in 2016—a 5.6 percent increase over 2015. The number topped the 17-million mark for the first time since 2013. With the exception of April 2016, when the number decreased by 2.3 percent, every month saw an increase on year-on-year basis, with August and November marking the highest increases of 10 percent and 10.5 percent respectively.
When JTB, the largest Japan business in Japan, last month announced its acquisition of Panorama Tours—it is the largest travel company in Indonesia, which has twice the population (260.6 million vs. 126.3 million) of Japan—it served as an occasion for Hiroyuki Takahashi, JTB’s president and CEO to emphasize that the move meant that JTB would now “engage in full-fledged development of our business model, from one that has until now considered human interactions predominantly in terms of outbound travel from Japan, to a model that is global in outlook, with a focus on Asia.”
