Baby boomers set to fuel outbound tourism in Japan

By Satish Gupta l eTN Asia
The year 2007 will see the first large-scale retirement of members of the baby boom generation in Japan. And this is expected to be a major contributing factor in outbound tourism, which is expected to touch new heights in 2007.

When it comes to baby-boomers, the demand is expected for journeys to express gratitude for a lifetime's work or to mark retirement. While baby boom retirees will not all start traveling in 2007, it is expected to mark a watershed in what will become a major future trend. This statement came from JTB Corp as it released the results of a survey of travel trends for 2007.

"This is the year that the first members of the ‘baby boom' generation, born in the years 1947 to 1949, start to retire. Because this generation is a very large 6.8-million segment of the population, the trends in their consumption are of great concern to various sectors of industry. In comparison with earlier generations of senior citizens, they are much more widely traveled, and in the increased leisure time that will follow their retirement they are expected to form a very large market for overseas travel," stated JTB. 
"Expectations for 2007, the year when their retirements start, center on increased demand for leisurely tours of Europe or China by couples celebrating retirement. Today, when growth in overseas travel among the younger generations is slowing down, the demand for overseas travel by senior citizens appears to hold the key to future trends in the numbers of those departing Japan."
Overall, In 2007, the number of overseas travelers from Japan, supported by healthy demand for business travel to Asia in general and to China in particular, is expected to reach 17.9 million (up 1.4 percent year-on-year), exceeding the previous peak of 17.82 million reached in 2000.
JTB shared that persistently lower exchange rates for the yen mean that travel costs are edging upwards, but it looks as if fuel surcharges will be less in 2007 than they were in 2006. It seems that the overall effect will be to take average expenditures on overseas travel to ¥299,000 ($2,534), up 0.6 percent year-on-year. This would result in total expenditures of ¥5,350 billion ($45.3 billion) on overseas travel, up 1.9 percent year-on-year.
On the other hand, the numbers of overseas visitors to Japan, supported by healthy growth in those coming from neighboring Asian nations, are expected to show continuing strong increases reaching a total of 7.7 million in 2007, up 6.2 percent year-on-year.
Increases in the numbers of repeat visitors and FIT travelers from neighboring Asian nations are expected to expand the range of tourist locations that they visit within Japan to include many that were previously only visited by Japanese travelers.
"While growth may not be quite as strong as it was in 2006, which was marked by the relaxation of visa requirements, major increases are again expected in the numbers coming from Korea. This will be complemented by demand from Taiwan which, like Korea, has benefited from relaxed visa requirements, and by ongoing healthy demand from Chinese business travelers. Together, these will drive continued increases in Asian visitors to Japan. On the other hand, 2006 saw a fallback in the number of visitors from Europe and America after the Aichi International Expo, but 2007 is expected to see a recovery from this effect and indeed a slight overall increase in their numbers," stated JTB Corp.

February 7, 2007   Posted in: Japan