JTB announced that Japanese travelers are expected to increase by 0.1% year on year to second-most 78.16 million in total in this summer vacation period (July 15 to August 31). While travelers in Japan may increase by 0.2% to 75.61 million, overseas travelers may reduce by 1.9% to 2.55 million, damaged by weak yen, instable social situation over Europe or MERS in Korea.
JTB has also forecasted that more Japanese have plans to travel in the five consecutive holidays, which is called Silver Week (September 19 to 23). As of the survey day, JTB had 80% more bookings of overseas package tour brand LOOK JTB and 188% more bookings of travel in Japan package tour brand Ace JTB (departures from Tokyo) in the period than a year earlier. The JTB questionnaire also shows that the ratio of people who have plans to travel in other period than the summer vacation period reached 15.4%, 2.7 higher points than a year earlier.
Travel budgets are down 0.4% to 34.700 yen per traveler for travel in Japan and up 0.7% to 251,500 per traveler for overseas travel. As bonus paid in this summer is generally expected to increase by 1.8 to 2.4%, the ratio of people who want to increase travel budget increased by 3.5 points to 16%, according to the JTB questionnaire.
Travel consumptions are expected to reduce by 0.4% to 3,265 billion yen, which consist of 2,623.7 billion yen for travel in Japan (-0.2%) and 641.3 billion yen for overseas travel (-1.3%).
The busiest departure days for overseas travels are August 8 for long-haul destinations, August 12 for middle-haul destinations and August 16 for short-haul destinations. By destination, bookings for Hawaii, Taiwan and Australia increased, while those for Europe, Malaysia and Korea decreased. Bookings for Korea particularly reduced by 19.2%.
The followings are expected travelers by destination in this summer vacation period:
China = 321,000 (+1.9%)
Korea = 257,000 (-19.2%)
Taiwan = 185,000 (+2.2%)
Hong Kong = 86,000 (-1.1%)
Thailand = 153,000 (+2.7%)
Singapore = 82,000 (unchanged)
Indonesia = 41,000 (unchanged)
Malaysia = 33,000 (-5.7%)
Others in Asia = 192,000 (+2.7%)
Hawaii = 234,000 (+0.9%)
Guam/Saipan = 143,000 (-2.1%)
Mainland U.S. = 222,000 (+0.5%)
Canada = 34,000 (+3.0%)
Europe in total = 432,000 (-1.4%)
Australia = 97,000 (+1.9%)
New Zealand = 11,000 (+10%)
South Pacific = 32,000 (unchanged)
Others (incl. Africa and Middle East) = 42,000 (unchanged)
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