Japan Tourism Agency reported that travel transactions of 49 major travel agents totaled 522.7 billion JPY (-1.0%) in December 2015. The monthly total consisted of 162.7 billion JPY for outbound travel (-3.6%), 14.3 billion JPY for inbound travel (+63.3%) and 345.7 billion JPY (+4.5%) for travel in Japan.
Including the results in December 2015, the yearly total reached 6,545.3 billion JPY, which comprised 2,045.2 billion JPY for outbound travel, 161.8 billion JPY for inbound travel and 4,338.3 billion JPY for travel in Japan.
All of the top five travel agents (JTB, H.I.S., Hankyu, KNT-CT and NTA) resulted in year-on-year reduction of 20% ore more for outbound travel, and the ranking was unchanged in 2015 from a year earlier.
In the inbound travel market, JTB largely increased transactions by 90.2% in December 2015, and also Rakuten resulted in an increase of 67.3%. Through 2015, Rakuen and Tobu Top Tours competed for fourth or fifth.
In the travel in Japan market, only Rakuten resulted in a double-digit growth in December 2015 and for nine months in a row since April 2015.
Transactions of package tour brand products totaled 129.7 billion JPY (-8.2%) with 2,869,730 customers in total (-6.0%) in December 2015. The total comprised 547 million JPY (+27.8%) with 34,161 customers (+46.4%) for inbound travel, 56.4 billion JPY (-16.2%) with 257,101 customers (-12.9%) for outbound travel and 72.8 billion JPY (-1.1%) with 2,578,468 customers (-5.6%) for travel in Japan. The year-on-year reduction of package tour transactions for travel in Japan was found for the first time since January 2015.
According to the hearings to travel agents, travelers from East Asia and Southeast Asia continued growing in the inbound travel market for a main reason of ease of visa rules. In the travel in Japan market, popularity of travel to Kansai and Hokuriku was still high. In the outbound travel market, worse holiday sequence in the New Year period from December 2015 to January 2016, as well as weak yen, discouraged Japanese travelers to go abroad for leisure particularly to Europe.
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