JAPAN. Outbound Japanese travel surged by +15.3% year-on-year in September to 1.58 million. The performance was lifted by healthy demand during the Silver Week holiday from 19 to 23 September. The figures were recorded by the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) and reported by Travel Journal International (TJI) Online.
This was the second successive month of overseas travel growth (August grew by +2.1%) and means outbound travel for the first nine months was 11.5 million, down by -4.8% on the same period a year ago.
TJI Online noted: “The double-digit rise was the first in 53 months since April 2005 when outbound traffic rose +10.0%. The good news offsets what has so far been a lacklustre year depressed by the sluggishness of the economy and the effects of fears of the H1N1 virus on travel demand.”
Tokyo Narita Airport, which handles 54% of all outbound traffic from Japan, reported a +10.9% jump in travel by Japanese travellers – the first increase in 2009.
China posted a +17% surge in Japanese arrivals to 321,200 while South Korea enjoyed a +42.9% surge to 288,993. Korea is on course for an annual record of visiting Japanese, with the previous record of 2.47 million set in 2000.
Taiwan, which has shown negative growth for most of the year, handled +10.7% more Japanese in September than last year, while the beach resorts of Guam (+21.9%), Hawaii (+16.74%) and the Northern Marianas (+21.9%) all performed well.
Inbound travel to Japan was down by -16.4% year-on-year as recovery is slower to take hold. The strong Japanese Yen was cited as one key reason for the sluggish demand. Year-to-date inbound traffic is down by -24.5% to 4.94 million.
*Editor’s note: The Moodie Report works closely with TJI Online, the largest English-language travel trade news source in Japan. Week in, week out, it provides timely and sharp analysis of the all-important Japanese travel market – international and domestic. To subscribe please visit https://tji.tjnet.co.jp. It comes with our highest recommendation.
MORE STORIES ON JAPANESE TRAVEL
South Korea and Thailand lead demand among Japanese for overseas travel in final months of 2009 – 28/10/09
Japanese outbound travel reverses sharp declines of recent months to post +2.15% growth in August – 30/09/09
