FEWER Japanese tourists are expected to travel overseas during the upcoming Golden Week holidays, down by around 0.4 per cent year-on-year.
Research by JTB identified some factors for the decline, the major one being the lack of consecutive national holidays.
Motohisa Tachikawa, spokesman for JTB told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Last year, the dates of national holidays meant that travellers only needed to take one day off from work to have a long holiday. This year, the way days fall means that they need to take two days off, and that is a lot more difficult.”
The second key factor is the weakening yen which, apart from forcing travel companies to raise their prices for overseas trips – JTB has increased the price of its Look JTB tours by three per cent – has also caused optional trips, restaurants and souvenirs to become relatively more expensive, putting tourists off.
The third factor, Tachikawa said, is concern over security in places such as the Middle East and Africa, as well as the recent spate of terrorist attacks in different parts of the world.
Consequently, the Japanese are opting for holidays closer to home, offsetting the fall in overseas travel. JTB expects 23.4 million people to travel within the country in late April and early May, a year-on-year increase of three per cent.
