The economic situation in Japan has brightened in the last six months, and travel to New Zealand is expected to follow suit. Although concerns remain about public debt and...
Market Overview
As our fourth largest market in terms of visitor spend, Japan
remains a valuable source of visitors for New Zealand. Visitor
arrivals have been performing poorly in recent years, particularly
in 2009 when they were heavily impacted by the economic downturn
and Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu outbreak.
However, length of stay and average spend per visitor both
increased in 2009, reinforcing the value of Japan as a high yield
source market.
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 increasing number of free independent
travel (FIT) specialty agents. Tourism New Zealand is now looking
to build the luxury travel sector of this market, and raise
awareness of what visitors can experience as part of an FIT
holiday.
There is a reasonable level of repeat travel from Japan,
with a third of all Japanese visitors coming to New Zealand more
than once. Many 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.