More visitors seen for the Marianas

Saipan and Guam are expected to receive 8.8 percent of the almost 600,000 Japanese tourists who will be traveling outside their country between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3, the peak season for Japanese tourists, according to a report by a top travel management agency.

JTB. Corp. projected that about 52,000 Japanese tourists will visit Saipan and Guam during the year-end/New Year season. This represents an increase of 6.1 percent from last year and 85.7 percent from 2002.

JTB’s projections were based on a questionnaire survey of 2,200 travelers, bookings with JTB offices, airline reservations, and industry trends. The survey was conducted from Nov. 3 through Nov. 12, 2004 at some 200 locations throughout Japan.

About 591,000 Japanese are expected to travel overseas during the New Year season.

It is estimated that 321,000 of these will go to Asian destinations, with 82,000 traveling to Korea, 80,000 to China, and 39,000 to Thailand.

Although it is projected that most Japanese travelers will be heading to nearby destinations, the number of travelers from Japan to Europe is expected to reach 66,000.

Survey results also show that Hawaii will receive 62,000 Japanese tourists during the holiday season.

Asked about their ideal travel, about 22 percent of the survey respondents picked relaxing at tropical islands such as Hawaii and Saipan. The choice came second only to relaxing at hot springs or eating New Year cuisine.

Of the respondents, 18.1 percent said they prefer relaxing at an Okinawan resort while 10.3 percent picked sleeping away the New Year at an overseas resort on Bali or Tahiti. Another 9.9 percent said they would like to experience New Year in the southern hemisphere in Australia.

The JTB report said the year-end/New Year holiday will generally run for four days from Dec. 31 through Jan. 3.

The report noted that more Japanese tourists are choosing Asian destinations because of fears over the SARS epidemic are gone and because the shorter holiday period makes it impractical to visit remote destinations.

JTB estimated that an outbound Japanese tourist will spend an average $2,048 for their trip, down by 4.4 percent from last year.

“The average expenditures for overseas travel are expected to decline because of the increase in travel to nearby Asian destinations and under the additional effect of higher exchange rates for the yen,” JTB explained.

The average length of journeys in days is also expected to be slightly down for both domestic and overseas travel, from 3.7 days to 3.6, due to the increase in travel to closer destinations, JTB added.