JTB announced that the number of Japanese travelers during this coming New Year holidays (December 23 2024 to January 3 2025) are expected to increase by 2% year on year to 28.5 million in total, who may spend 1.35 trillion yen in total, 6.3% more than a year ago.
Departure days are more decentralized
Domestic travelers are expected to reach 28 million, almost the same as a year ago. Travel consumption may be up 4.9% to 1.2 trillion yen, and the average expense is estimated at a 4.9% increase to 43,000 yen per traveler.
JTB said that decentralization of departure days would be more seen this year, and travelers who have purposes to enjoy with families for relaxation.
The most-preferred travel days are ‘1 night and 2 days (29.9%),’ 2.4 lower points than a year ago. ‘2 nights and 3 days’ increase by 0.7 points to 28.2% maybe because of a better holiday sequence.
The most-selected travel companion is ‘family with children (20.6%)’ followed by ‘solo travel (19.8%) and ‘married couple (18.7%).
The most popular destination is ‘Kanto (24.2%),’ followed by ‘Kinki (17.9%),’ ‘Tokai (11.2%).’ The highest ratio of travelers who travel in the same resident areas is found in Hokkaido (56.9%), followed by Kyushu (56.9%) and Tohoku (49.4%).
The most-selected transportation is ‘my own car (49.3%)).’ JTB said that travelers who use multiple transportations may increase because the average travel days are longer.
The most-preferred accommodation is ‘hotel (51.1%), 4.1 higher points than a year ago. The ratio of ‘parents’ or relatives’ home’ is down 4.3 points to 32.7%.
Bookings of JTB package tours during the period were almost the same as year ago (as of December 4).
The most popular overseas destination is South Korea
JTB has forecasted that Japanese outbound travelers during the period will increase by 13% year on year to 520,000, far from 830,000 in 2019-2020 New Year holidays. Travel consumption may be up 20.6% to 142 billion yen, and the average expense is expected to increase by 6.6% to 273,000 yen per traveler.
The most-preferred travel days are ‘3 nights and 4 days (25.5%),’ followed by ‘8 night or more (16.1%). The ratio of shorter than 3 nights and 4 days is 4.3 higher points than a year ago or 6.2 higher points than 2019.
The most popular destination is South Korea (26.2%), followed by ‘Taiwan (11.4%),’ ‘ Hawaii (10.7%)’ and ‘Europe (10.1%).’
JTB received 30% more overseas travel bookings than a year ago (as of December 4).
Early booking is good to avoid over-tourism
According to results of the JTB questionnaire survey about life in this coming year’s New Year holidays, the ratio of people who had more income than a year ago increased to 7.1%, while the ratio of people who had less income than a year ago decreased to 14.0%.
The ratio of people who plan to spend the same amount of money for travel in 2025 increased to 50.3%. The ratio of people who plan to spend more money for travel decreased to 14.2%, and likewise the ratio of people who plan to spend less money for travel decreased to 35.5%,
About what you should do to avoid over-tourism, the most-selected answers are ‘early booking (31%),’ followed by ‘selecting a less-crowded destination (16.4%)’ and ‘changing an itinerary to less-crowded days like weekday (15.9%).’
