Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) announced that travel spending in Japan by international visitors in 2016 increased by 7.8% year on year to record high 3,747.6 billion JPY. Travel spending per capita, however, reduced by 11.5% to 155,896 JPY from 176,168 JPY in 2015. The growth rate of travel spending was one third of the growth rate of international visitors (+21.8%).
The table below shows changes of travel spending and visitors in the last six years:
The top market in travel spending was China with 1,475.4 billion JPY (a share of 39.4%), followed by Taiwan with 524.5 billion JPY (14%) and Korea with 357.8 billion JPY (9.5%).
The highest spending per capita was 247,000 JPY by an Australian visitor (+6.7%), followed by 232,000 JPY by a Chinese visitor and 224,000 JPY by a Spanish visitor. Spending per Chinese reduced by 18.4% year on year, which was the largest reduction rate.
The table below shows spending per capita by category:
A total of 1,426.1 billion JPY was spent for shopping, which accounted for 38.1% of the total, smaller than 41.8% a year ago. Spending for other categories increased: from 897.4 billion JPY to 1,014 billion JPY for lodging, from 642 billion JPY to 757.4 billion JPY for food and drink and from 367.8 billion JPY to 428.8 billion JPY for transportation.
The table below shows composition of spending by category:
Through 2016, Japanese yen had been stronger in the top five markers (China, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and U.S.). Based on local currency, spending per capita increased year on year in all of the above markets except China.
An Australian visitor spent 99,802 yen for lodging, and a According to the JTA survey to Chinese visitors in November last year, 44.6 percent answered rise of the tariff rates discouraged them to buy goods in Japan, and 22.4 percent answered EC was a main reason for them to reduce spending for shopping in Japan.
