What Can We Learn from Japan's Changing Travel Preferences?

 Australia’s inbound travel market for Japanese tourists had a meteoric rise in the 80s and peaked in 1997 but has had a steady decline since then.

In terms of Australia’s outbound market share that too has reduced from over 5% to around 2% currently.

Following are some observations from data in a recent presentation to the Australia-Japan Society of NSW by Dr Roger March from the University of NSW.

The first is the striking slump in Japanese travel to Hawaii, traditionally a ‘comfortable’ short-haul destination for Japanese and especially repeat visitors. Naturally it could be expected that this has switched to the ‘fresher’ destination of China as seen in the accompanying chart. On the other hand it does suggest that Japanese travellers' traditional tastes may be changing. If so how can Australia, which has been in decline as a destination, react to such changes?

Recent figures for Australia would have been much worse had it not been for the support of the student market segment from Japan.

There might also have been an impact as a result of the recent strong Australian dollar, although there does not seem to be an apparent statistical correlation between our exchange rates and Japanese arrivals. A more likely factor is the ‘campaign’ nature of travel sales in Japan highlighting this season’s ‘must-do’ destination. The decline in Australia’s market share is not a recent phenomenon as the attached chart shows. How to arrest this structural problem?