Japan Tourism Agency reported that travel transactions of 50 major travel agents totaled 510.8 billion JPY (-6.0%) in October 2016, resulting year-on-year reductions for six months in a row. The monthly total consisted of 174.9 billion JPY for outbound travel (-11.1%), 20.5 billion JPY for inbound travel (+16.8%) and 315.4 billion JPY for travel in Japan (-4.1%).
For outbound travel, four of the top five travel agents (15 JTB Group companies, three Hankyu Travel Group companies, eight KNT-CT Group companies and NTA), Hankyu resulted in year-on-year reductions. Only H.I.S. Group resulted in slight year-on-year growth.
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 recorded year-on-year growth of more than 50%.
For travel in Japan, among the top five companies, Rakuten did better business with growth of 9.3%, while KNT-CT resulted in year-on-year reduction of 10%.
Transactions of package tour brand products totaled 139.9 billion JPY in October 2016 (-9.6%) with 3.086,984 customers in total (-9.2%). The total comprised 52 billion JPY (-14.7%) with 252,175 customers (-10.3%) for outbound travel, 668 million JPY (+8.6%) with 40,284 customers (+10.5%) for inbound travel and 87.1 billion JPY (-6.4%) with 2,794,525 customers (-9.3%) for travel in Japan.
According to hearings to travel companies, the outbound travel market for Europe was still affected by the terrorist attack in Nice. The travel in Japan market was influenced by a negative rebound from open of Hokuriku Shinkansen a year ago. In the inbound travel market, travelers from East Asia, Southeast Asia and North America continued increasing.
