Japan Tourism Agency reported that travel transactions of 50 major travel agents totaled 483.8 billion JPY (-1.7%) in November 2016, resulting year-on-year reductions for seven months in a row. The monthly total consisted of 168 billion JPY for outbound travel (-+1.5%), 17.1 billion JPY for inbound travel (-3.0%) and 298.7 billion JPY for travel in Japan (-3.3%).
For outbound travel, four of the top five travel agents (15 JTB Group companies, five H.I.S. group companies, three Hankyu Travel Group companies, eight KNT-CT Group companies and NTA), NTA moved up to fourth with year-on-year growth of 6.9%.
For inbound travel, among the top five travel agents (15 JTB Group companies, five H.I.S. Group companies, eight KNT-CT Group companies, Tobu Top Tours and NTA), Tobu Top Tours moved up to the fifth, overtaking Rakuten. KNT-CT resulted in double-digit growth, while JTB Group double-digit reduction.
For travel in Japan, among the top five companies (15 JTB Group companies, eight KNT-CT Group companies, NTA, Rakuten and ANA Sales), Rakuten did better business with growth of 8.9%, while JTB Group resulted in year-on-year reduction of about 10%.
Transactions of package tour brand products totaled 130.9 billion JPY in November 2016 (-3.6%) with 3,251,606 customers in total (-4.3%). The total comprised 45.1 billion JPY (-0.5%) with 252,635 customers (+6.7%) for outbound travel, 546 million JPY (-4.4%) with 32,900 customers (+0.5%) for inbound travel and 85.3 billion JPY (-5.1%) with 2,966,071 customers (-5.2%) for travel in Japan.
According to hearings to travel companies, the outbound travel business positively rebounded from downturn right after the terrorist attacks in November 2015. The inbound travel business negatively rebounded from receipt of large-scale groups a year ago. The travel in Japan business was negatively affected by worse holiday sequences than a year ago.
