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Japan
Market Overview
Japan’s economy is now firmly out of recession, although unemployment and low wages are still holding back consumer spending and outbound travel. Travel to New Zealand has begun to show signs of improvement following the negative impacts of Influenza A H1N1 (Swine Flu), with travel sellers reporting that bookings are tracking around the same as 2008/09 for the coming peak season.
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As our fifth-largest visitor market, Japan remains a valuable source of visitors for New Zealand. However the market has been performing poorly in recent years. Visitor arrivals have been in decline, a trend that looks set to continue.
Changing travel preferences have seen the Japanese shift away from coach tour travel. More and more Japanese are choosing to travel by rental car and even campervan, although there is still a tendency to stick to major tourism centres.
While traditional travel agent/inbound tour operator distribution still prevails in Japan, there is a growing independent travel market and small-fully independent (FIT) speciality travel agents are growing in number. Tourism New Zealand is now looking to build the luxury travel sector of this market.
There is a moderate level of repeat travel from Japan, with a third of all Japanese visitors coming to New Zealand more than once. Most visitors from our long-haul markets will combine a visit to New Zealand with another destination, usually Australia. This is not the case with the Japanese market, with around 80 per cent of all visitors treating New Zealand as a single destination.
Visitor numbers from Japan declined 30 per cent between 1999 and 2008. At the same time the outbound travel market from Japan decreased around 10 per cent. New Zealand has seen positive monthly arrival statistics from the Japanese market in only four months since November 2004.
On the positive side, Japanese visitors are spending more per person than they were a year ago. While holiday visitors for the year ended September 2009 decreased by 32.9 per cent their average expenditure increased by 18.4 per cent.
Fast Facts:
Visitors Arrivals year to date
(Total Arrivals) | 79,042 (YE Oct 2009) -28.8% |
Median length of stay
(Holiday Arrivals) | 6 days (YE Sep 2009) |
Average Expenditure per visit
(Holiday Arrivals) | NZ$4,584 (YE Sep 2009) +18.4% |
Total Expenditure
(Total Arrivals) | NZ$392,424,620 (YE Sep 2009) -3.5% |
Forecast average growth in travel to
New Zealand 2009-2015 | -0.2% per annum |
| Population | 127,078,679 (Jul 2009 est.) |
| Key Regions/cities | Greater Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya & Fukuoka |
| Direct Routes to New Zealand | Air New Zealand with code share partner Japan Airlines: daily from Narita, Tokyo (Nov - Mar); 5 times a week from Kansai, Osaka (Nov - Mar) |
| Leave Entitlement | 15-20 days |
| Currency | Japanese Yen (JPY) |
| Exchange rate |
JPY = NZ$1.50 (16 Nov 09) |
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GDP Growth | -5.7% in 2009
1.5% in 2010
(Nov 2009 est.) |
| Per capita GDP (PPP) | US$34,092 (2008) |
This information was last updated on 23 November 2009.
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