JAPAN. Sales of overseas travel at leading tour operator JTB Group dropped by -6.3% in December, amid lacklustre demand for outbound travel among the Japanese. The news was reported by Travel Journal International Online*.
JTB Group’s 14 companies posted consolidated sales of Y37.21 billion (US$397 million), in what was the seventh straight month of declines.
The number of tour participants handled at JTB Group companies dropped by -9.5%. JTB accounted for a 23.3% share of all Japanese travellers that went abroad in December.
Overseas sales from group tours and agent-planned tours dropped -3.1% and -6.2%, respectively. Sales at the LOOK-JTB agency fell -3.5%, and tour participants fell -2.9%.
As Japanese travellers remained closer to home, sales in Asia remained solid, but demand slowed for travel to Guam/Saipan, Europe, Hawaii and North America.
Sales of domestic travel packages fell -2.2%, while inbound travel also fell by -2.2% in the month.
Outbound travel sales for the first nine months (April-December) of JTB’s 2008/09 fiscal year fell -6% from the corresponding period a year earlier to Y353 billion (US$3.7 billion).
*Editor’s note: The Moodie Report works closely with TJI Online, the largest English-language travel trade news source in Japan. Week in, week out, it provides timely and sharp analysis of the all-important Japanese travel market – international and domestic. To subscribe please visit https://tji.tjnet.co.jp. It comes with our highest recommendation.
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