Japan Tourism Agency has released “Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan (January to March 2014)” analyzing the actual state of consumption of foreigners visiting Japan. In this survey, detailed analysis on the information needed during the stay in Japan was conducted. Items topped this ranking were “free Wi-Fi” (47.0%) and “transport” (45.0%), both accounted for nearly half of the visitors. Especially 53.3% of leisure oriented visitors answered “free Wi-Fi” showing high demand for it. On the other hand, 44.9% of business oriented visitors choose “transport” indicating which was needed the most.
Looking it at by the nationality and region of the visitors, “free Wi-Fi” and “transport” were chosen as the top 2 needs in most areas, however visitors from Europe chose “restaurants” (43.7%) as the 2nd choice exceeding “free Wi-Fi” (34.7%.) Also, demands differ in other areas as well: visitors from Asia selected “shopping locations” and “tourist facilities” and visitors from Europe and Australia selected “ATM” and “accommodations” in top 5.
The country/region which the most visitors chose “free Wi-Fi” was Hong Kong with 65.6%, then followed by Taiwan (58.8%) and Australia (54.9%.) In general, ratio of visitors choosing “free Wi-Fi” become smaller in older age groups, however more than 60% of the visitors in 40s and 50s from Hong Kong chose “free Wi-Fi” as well as those in 20s and 30s. Australia (44.1%), Europe and America accounted for the top 5 of visitors requiring “ATM”, indicating its high needs among the visitors staying for a long term.
What the visitors wanted to do before their visit to Japan were: “eat Japanese food” 74.1%, “shopping” 58.7%, “nature/scenery sightseeing” 48.3%, “bathe in a hot spring” 44.4% and “walking in shopping districts” 38.3%. “Eat Japanese food” ranked within the top 5 choices for the visitors from Singapore, Thailand, Europe and America, but “shopping” was more popular for the visitors from Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia and China.
Moreover, visitors’ anticipation before visiting Japan were actually satisfied or not was analyzed for each markets. The visitors from China were involved in activities they looked forward to do before they visited Japan and gained satisfaction, especially over 80% of the visitors felt satisfaction for the top 5 activities of their choice. The large fraction of the visitors from Europe and America also did what they had anticipated to do before their visit and got satisfaction. Finally, over 80% of the visitors from Thailand “ate Japanese food” and over 90% gained satisfaction which was higher compared with the other activities,
On the contrary, visitors from Korea neither had strong anticipation before coming to Japan nor gained much satisfaction after visiting Japan. For example, the most anticipated activity “eat Japanese food” interested only 69.3% visitors, 93.7% of them actually did so while in Japan and 81.2% of tem felt satisfied. Other anticipated activities attracted interest of only about 40% visitors: “shopping” (43.1%) and “bathe in a hot spring” (42.0%.)
