Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) and Japan Travel Bureau Foundation (JTBF) has recently published the trend survey on international visitors to Japan for FY2018, targeting South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, U.S.A., Australia, U.K. and France. The FY2018 report adds the awareness survey on natural disasters occurred in Japan after July 2018.
According to the survey results, 47% of all of the targeting countries aware that Japan frequently faces natural disasters, and about 70% knew the latest natural disasters occurred in Japan. Also, the survey finds that Japan is known as a country to recover quickly from a natural disaster particularly in Asia. Regarding safety, more than 40% in all of the targeting countries aware that Japan is still a safe country.
On the contrary, the ratio of answers of ‘Japan is an advanced country to take care of foreigners in the case of natural disaster’ is just 26% overall, and it is especially low in U.S.A., Australia and Europe (14%).
The biggest concern for international visitors to travel in Japan is earthquake for the first time since the survey started in 2012, overtaking language that had been the biggest concern since 2015, as the graph below illustrates.
After a series of natural disasters in this summer, the ratio of willingness to travel in Japan as FIT is down 5 points to 30%, and the reduction rate is 12 points in U.S.A., Australia and Europe. In reverse, the ratio of willingness to choose package tours is up 3 points overall and 9 points in U.S.A., Australia and Europe.
Regarding lodging, the ratio of willingness to choose ryokans is down 7 points to 63%, while the ratio of western-style hotels up 2 points to 41%.
