The latest Jalan Research Center’s survey on the inbound travel target market finds that 78% of all DMOs or prefectures in Japan target Taiwan as a source market, followed by Australia (51.4%) and U.S. (49.7%). All of the top three source markets did not change from the last year, but China was down to 8th from 5th last year.
By area, South Korea and Australia are more selected as targeting source markets in Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa areas, and Thailand selected in Tohoku and Chubu areas.
The top reason for selection of a target market was ‘because tourism resources and contents are compatible with the target markets (64.4%),’ followed by ‘because they have already received many travelers from the target markets (48.6%).’ The ranks of ‘because the target markets are expected to spend more money’ and ‘because it is easier to develop promotions for the target markets’ are up.
Regarding market data by area, including spending an inbound traveler or guest nights, released by Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 22.6% of all DMOs and prefectures said that they use it for target selection, and 21.5% said that they use it for promotion strategies.
The top three challenges are ‘development of environment to receive inbound travelers (68.9%),’ ‘shortage of workforces (65.5%)’ and ‘promotion activities (58.2%).’
