Published on October 1, 2019
Job titles and other details are as of the time of publication.
(The interview was conducted in Japanese and was thereafter translated into English.)

Inbound Tourists on Track to Surpass 40 million in 2020

My research topics include tourism marketing and tourist behavior. Since 2018, I have been studying the behavior of inbound tourists, or international visitors to Japan. It all started with a simple question: Why do people spend time and money on sightseeing trips although it is not necessarily essential to life?

Under the vision of making our country a popular tourist destination, the Japanese government has sought to increase inbound visitors through its “Visit Japan” campaign launched in 2003. Since then, the number of tourists from abroad has grown rapidly, from 5.21 million in 2003 to over 10 million in 2013 and to roughly 31.19 million in 2018. This upsurge is primarily attributed to the government’s policy to ease visa restrictions for travelers and the advent of low-cost carriers, or LCCs. With the current momentum, the goal of welcoming 40 million inbound visitors in 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, is well within reach.

This raises the question: Why is inbound travel increasing at such a rapid rate? To find the answer, I conducted a questionnaire survey, first with a sample of around 500 Taiwanese tourists in Japan. Taking into account the potential biases in many of the responses, I then conducted an interview survey and collected data from people with travel experience to Japan in Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand through my acquaintances who are researchers in these countries and region. The survey revealed many insights.

Reasons for Repeat Visits to Japan

The number of repeat visits to Japan is growing. According to my interview survey, the story behind this trend is generally that people who initially travelled to Japan on a package tour and did not have enough time to visit all the tourist attractions, later came back on an independent trip encouraged by relaxed visa restrictions and the availability of budget airlines, and they enjoyed themselves sufficiently the second time to revisit time and time again. Also, a significant number of respondents said that Japan, as one of Asia’s most developed countries, offers safe and secure travel as well as a range of accommodations meeting a certain standard of quality even in regional areas. These were important factors influencing their decision to revisit again. One person also remarked that being Asian, you do not stand out in the streets in Japan as much as you do in Western countries, which made them feel safer.

What is interesting is that none of the respondents mentioned Japan’s seasonal natural beauty, good food, warm hospitality, and other such tourism resources and attractions the Japanese government actively champions. When asked, “Where would you like to go if you had all the time and money?” the overwhelming majority replied, “South America” or “Africa.” This tells me that traveling to the geographically close Japan is like an extension of a quick shopping trip to a neighboring town. Tourists do not necessarily exhibit the behavior patterns of tourists envisioned by our government.

The Gap between Inbound Tourist Needs and the Perceptions of Local Governments and Tourist Destinations

The question, “Why do you make repeat visits?” prompted an interesting response: “You might call it a repeat visit, but I didn’t come for the same experience as before. With a different companion, the trip becomes a completely different travel experience.” Tourist destinations tend to launch new events and activities, believing that offering unique and varied experiences is the key to sustaining visitor interest and generating repeat visits. But, the repeat visitors want to revisit the destination they previously visited and enjoyed with a different travel companion. If tourists revisit a destination and find that their favorite spots or locations have changed from what they were before, they might feel disappointed.

As this example shows, there are often discrepancies between what local governments and tourist destinations envisage as tourism appeal and what international visitors actually consider as attractions. All the interviewees in my survey said they would follow their own preferences in deciding where to go and what to do. The main challenge faced by the Japanese tourism industry today lies in how well it can identify these expectations and true intentions of international tourists.

In this survey, the sample was limited to travelers from three Asian countries. I consider tourists from Europe and the United States have different travel needs and motivations from my survey respondents. I intend to continue researching this topic further.

Considerations for Choosing Onsen

Prior to studying inbound tourism, I was engaged in researching spa visitors in Japan. This is the topic of my doctoral dissertation and I had continued to investigate it after completing the graduate program. Japan has various kinds of natural hot springs, known as “onsen”, across the country, and many tourists visit and enjoy them. Onsen trips are not a necessity of life, so why do people bother with such trips? And how do they choose their hot spring destinations? These simple questions were the starting points of my study. While these are profound questions, the answers to which may not be found in a lifetime, my research did produce a number of findings.

You might believe, for example, that the quality of hot spring is an important factor for choosing a destination. In fact, Yufuin Onsen with its simple hot spring is more popular than spa resorts like Beppu and Noboribetsu Onsen that presumably offer all types of hot springs. This indicates that spa tourists pay little attention to the quality of hot spring or therapeutic effects and give greater weight to the location and other factors in choosing an onsen.

While the study found that many people head to onsen resorts largely to relax and refresh, when you take a look in detail, there are differences in behaviors among tourists. Some people search thoroughly to find just the right hot spring or inn matching their preferences, while others leave the planning to a travel companion. There are spa tourists who visit the same onsen over and over because an onsen trip is an annual ritual, yet they cannot be bothered to think about where to go. Meanwhile, hot spring resorts are going to great lengths to attract visitors by building new ashiyu (foot baths), introducing unique specialty dishes, and so on. Here again we note a discrepancy.

Differences in Perceptions of Spas in Japan and Abroad

Turning our sights abroad, we find a difference in how Japanese and non-Japanese people view hot springs. In Japan, people tend to choose onsens as a destination for company or family trips, a place to enjoy a soak, drink, and socialize with colleagues or family members. Europeans and Americans, on the other hand, seem to pay more attention to the therapeutic aspects of hot springs and see them as a place for therapeutic bathing. In other countries you hardly ever see naked strangers bathing together like we do in Japan. A friend of mine from Thailand told me that most Thai women dislike bathing with someone close, like a family member, and the closer the relationship, the more co-bathing is detested. Whether service providers understand such cultural aspects can make a big difference in the way they serve their guests.

Benefits of Studying at Hitotsubashi University

Conducting analyses of the needs of tourists and striving to meet those needs will help to grow the tourism industry and therein lies the value of studying tourism and tourist behavior. I am convinced of the numerous benefits of studying at Hitotsubashi University. Our university has rich academic excellence in areas such as marketing, business management, and law. This accumulated knowledge can contribute to the growth of tourism and hospitality industries in Japan. Furthermore, HUB-SBA (Hitotsubashi Business School- School of Business Administration) offers the Hospitality Management Program, which is a subprogram within the Business Administration (MBA) Program. Its main objective is to develop candidates for management positions who will lead the tourism and hospitality industries in the future.

The structure of tourism in Japan is characterized by diverse tourist preferences on the one hand and a majority of accommodation establishments such as inns and hotels being small, family businesses on the other. Japan aims to become a tourism-oriented nation; however, the hospitality industry remains in the developmental stage, which makes research that contributes to its advancement worthwhile.