Japan doesn’t go on overseas trips… They say they spend a lot of money on travel here during the year-end and New Year holidays.

While tourism is rapidly revitalizing in Japan following the coronavirus reopening, Japanese people appear to be preferring domestic travel over overseas travel. As a result, it is expected that Japanese people’s domestic travel consumption during this year’s year-end and New Year holidays will hit an all-time high.

According to JTB, Japan’s largest travel agency, on the 5th, the domestic travel cost per person for Japanese people between the 23rd of this year and January 3rd of next year was 41,000 yen (about 365,000 won), an increase of 4,000 yen from last year and the highest ever.

The number of travelers is also expected to almost recover to the pre-corona pandemic level, increasing by about 1 million (about 4%) to 28 million. In Japan, the holiday lasts for about a week every year from around Omisoka (December 31st) to after New Year’s Day (January 1st).

As Japanese demand for domestic travel increases, the number of trains is expected to increase. Japan Railway (JR) Tokai, which operates the Shinkansen, announced that between the 28th of this month and the 4th of next year, the number of Tokaido Shinkansen lines will operate at 434, the highest ever.

Accommodation reservations are also fully booked. According to the Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), the number of reservations for luxury accommodations such as hotels on the travel reservation service ‘Rakuten Travel’ between the 23rd of this month and January 8th of next year increased by about 50% compared to 2019.

The recovery in Japanese overseas travel is relatively slow compared to other countries. According to JTB, the number of overseas travelers in Japan during the year-end and New Year holidays has increased 2.6 times compared to last year, but is still at 70% of the level in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Nikkei cited the impact of the low yen, rising air fares, and a shortage of seats as factors. In the case of All Nippon Airways (ANA), the number of international flights during the year-end and New Year holidays totaled 1,381, an increase of 34% compared to the same period last year, but only 65% ​​compared to 2019.

It was found that Japanese people’s demand for overseas travel during the year-end and New Year holidays was mainly concentrated in nearby Asian countries such as Seoul, South Korea and Taipei, Taiwan. HIS, Japan’s second-largest travel agency, explained to Nikkei, “There is high demand for tourist destinations served by low-cost carriers (LCCs).”

Nikkei pointed out that despite rising prices, Japanese consumption, including demand for travel during the year-end and New Year holidays, is robust, but continuous wage increases are the key to maintaining the consumption trend.

As the wage increase rate failed to keep up with the rate of inflation, the real wage per capita of Japanese workers decreased for 18 consecutive months until last September.

Meanwhile, according to a recent tally by the travel and leisure platform ‘Yeogyeohtae’, the amount of overseas accommodation transactions during the upcoming Christmas holiday period increased approximately 11.4 times compared to last year.

It is reported that overseas travel reservations for December, as calculated by major domestic travel agencies such as ‘Hana Tour, Mode Tour, and Very Good Travel’ as of last month, also increased by 120% to 175% compared to a year ago.