The latest JTB survey on food and travel finds that the most popular purpose to travel in Japan was onsen (a share of 64.4%), followed by food or gourmet (55.0%). The survey also shows that majority of travelers tended to choose restaurants on a hit or miss basis (52.1%), followed by to decide only an area for dining before departing (45.5%).
Interestingly, young travelers preferred to collect information on local foods and to have dining plans in advance. The shares of hit or miss fashion and on-site booking were higher among older travelers than among others. The shares of deciding only an area for dining and deciding what to eat on a particular day were the highest among 20’s to 30’s travelers.
The table below shows how to decide restaurants by generation:
The most popular information source for dining was information site for gourmet, followed by travel guidebook and on-site information or leaflet. The tendency, however, varied with generation or gender. For female traveler, for example, recommendations from friends and homepages of local tourism associations were more preferred. On-site information or leaflet was more popular among senior travelers than among young travelers.
The table below shows information sources for dining by generation and gender:
10327642 - summer vacation and travel by busIn the meantime, the survey finds that local foods recommended by local people did not necessarily satisfy travelers. In Hokkaido, for example, travelers were satisfied with local farm-to-table restaurants rather than local ramen/soba/udon or local original everyday-foods. In Nagoya, the tendency reversed.
The survey was conducted to 1,744 males and females who have traveled in Japan from three major urban areas to Hokkaido, Miyagi, Niigata, Ishikawa, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kagoshima within the last year.
