Comparing Domestic Travel Destinations of Foreign Visitors to Japan and Japanese Travelers in 2019

Which prefectures are most popular with Japanese travelers and foreigners visiting Japan?

This report “Travel Destinations Ranking in Japan” ranks the destinations visited by foreigners visiting Japan and residents of Japan by 47 prefectures. Due to the impact of the coronavirus from 2020, various services aimed at stimulating demand for domestic tourism have started in national and local governments. Until now, promotions and activities for foreigners visiting Japan have been carried out in each region as an inbound strategy, but this time, plans are being reworked for domestic Japanese travelers.

So, where are the popular travel destinations for Japanese people in Japan? Also, are there any differences in travel destinations from those of foreigners visiting Japan? By comparing the number of visitors to Japan by prefecture, you may be able to see the differences in the purposes of travel sought by both.

In addition, we compared the expenditures at the places visited by both visitors. From the point of view of foreigners visiting Japan, a trip to Japan is an overseas trip, so their sense of spending will be different from that of Japanese people traveling domestically. Data refer to pre-coronavirus 2019 statistics. “Japanese” here refers to people living in Japan.

Shinjuku Tokyo

Japanese domestic travel consumption in 2019 was 21,931.2 billion yen (up 7.1% from the previous year). The breakdown is 17,156.0 billion yen for overnight trips (up 8.6% year-on-year) and 4.7752 trillion yen for day trips (up 2.0% year-on-year).

The per capita travel expenditure for Japanese domestic travel in 2019 was 37,355 yen (up 2.4% from the previous year). For overnight trips, the expenditure per person was 55,054 yen (up 1.4% year-on-year), and for day trips it was 17,334 yen (up 0.3% year-on-year).

Number of foreign visitors to Japan and spending in 2019

Regarding the number of foreign visitors to Japan, we refer to the number of foreign visitors to Japan from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2019 was 31,880,000, which is about one tenth of the number of Japanese overnight travelers.

However, looking at the amount of consumption, the total amount of consumption by foreigners visiting Japan in 2019 is estimated to be 4,813.5 billion yen, which is close to the amount consumed by Japanese people on day trips.

Travel expenditure per foreign visitor (general visitor) to Japan is estimated at 159,000 yen. This means that the travel expenditure of a foreigner visiting Japan is about three times that of a Japanese overnight stay. By consumption amount, accommodation expenses accounted for 29.4%, eating and drinking expenses accounted for 21.6%, and shopping expenses accounted for 34.7%.

The top 3 visited destinations are the same for both Japanese and foreigners

Tokyo, Osaka, and Chiba, which are ranked top 3, are chosen as travel destinations by both Japanese and foreigners. In terms of unit consumption, in Tokyo, Japanese spend 20,000 yen, while foreigners spend 100,000 yen, five times as much. In Osaka Prefecture, foreigners (73,000 yen) also spend four to five times more than Japanese tourists (19,000 yen). Conversely, in Chiba Prefecture, the unit consumption of Japanese (24,000 yen) is higher than that of foreigners (16,000 yen). This may be the consumption effect of Japanese people enjoying themselves at amusement parks. It can be seen that these top three prefectures have strong tourism resources.

Foreigners visiting Japan who seek more healing of nature and culture

Kyoto ranks 10th among Japanese travel destinations, while it ranks 4th among foreigners after Chiba. Nara prefecture ranks 34th among Japanese tourists, while it ranks 5th among foreigners, showing a huge difference in rank. The fact that Kyoto and Nara are ranked high indicates that foreigners are looking for Japanese historical and atmospheric townscapes. However, in Nara Prefecture, the unit consumption of foreigners is 8,000 yen, which is the lowest among the 47 prefectures, so there are few targets for consumption. Similarly, Chiba Prefecture also has the lowest unit consumption of foreigners visiting Japan at 16,000 yen, second only to Nara. It’s a pity that the consumption unit price is low even though it is the 3rd place in terms of the number of visitors (10.485 million people).

Japanese spend the most on Okinawa trips, while foreigners visiting Japan spend most in Hokkaido

In terms of unit consumption, the destination visited by Japanese travelers the most was Okinawa Prefecture with 69,000 yen. The number of visitors to Okinawa Prefecture is not as high as 30th, and it is only one-tenth of Tokyo. Hokkaido, which has the next largest consumption unit price, is 33,000 yen. The ranking of the number of visitors is also 5th place and the top 5. Tokyo, which has the most visitors, has a surprisingly low unit consumption of 20,000 yen, and similarly, Osaka is also not high at 19,000 yen.

On the other hand, the unit consumption ranking of foreigners is 121,000 yen in Hokkaido (8th place in terms of number of visits), 109,000 yen in Tokyo (ranking number of visits: 1st), 97,000 yen in Okinawa (ranking number of visits: 1st). 73,000 yen in Osaka Prefecture (ranking number of visits: 2nd), and 71,000 yen in Fukuoka Prefecture (ranking number of visits: 7th).

Creating attractive tourism resources

Tourists flock to places with such tourism resources, such as historical buildings, rich natural environments, amusement parks, international MICE facilities, and unique cultural culture. On the other hand, even in regions where tourism resources are scarce, there are places that are working hard to revitalize the tourism industry by creating tourism resources and various initiatives. At Local Guide Biz, we will disseminate information on these regions that are working hard to both domestically and internationally.

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