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Reflecting the ongoing economic recovery, the number of domestic travelers is expected to hit a record this summer, with many recently retired baby boomers hitting the road.
 
Sightseeing spots in the Kinki region are becoming more popular compared with last year. One factor in the growing popularity of the region is the opening of a popular Harry Potter area at Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka. Sightseeing spots in the Kanto region, however, have seen a decline of visitors.
 
USJ’s new four-hectare The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened on July 15. Because of its popularity, USJ has limited entrance into the area by issuing numbered tickets linked to time periods. However, long lines remain in front of popular attractions, with some visitors waiting as long as two hours.
 
There are also more people visiting USJ, in general, with the park adopting a new reservation system to let visitors into some attractions without standing in line if they arrive early in the day, receive a ticket with a time stamped on it, and then visit the attraction at the designated time. The system has eased congestion in the theme park.
 
Major travel agency JTB Corp. is selling package tours that allow visitors to enter the Harry Potter area 15 minutes before official opening time through an exclusive contract with USJ. There has been a five-fold increase from the previous year in USJ-related tours departing from Tokyo in July, including those who are making reservations.
 
JTB President Hiroyuki Takahashi says the response has been great. “We had to invest a lot to get this contract,” he said, “but I’m sure we will be able to recover the costs.”
 
In the Kinki region, Kyoto has remained a perennial favorite. In July, Kyoto topped a list ranking the world’s best cities to visit in an annual readers’ poll by Travel and Leisure, a U.S. travel magazine believed to have global influence. It was the first time for a Japanese city to hit No. 1 on the list.
 
According to a JTB survey, 12.2 percent of respondents chose the Kinki region as their travel destination during summer vacation, up by 1.7 percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, 16.6 percent of respondents chose the Kanto region, a decrease of 3.3 percentage points from the previous year. The trend might reflect a drop in popularity after Tokyo Disneyland wrapped up celebrating its 30th anniversary last year.


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Travel with grandchildren
 
JTB estimates there were 79.02 million travelers between July 15 and Aug. 31 who arranged domestic and international travel with accommodations, up by 0.2 percent from the previous year. It is expected to become the largest number since 2000.
 
Of them, there were 76.39 million domestic travelers, up by 0.2 percent, with 2.63 million overseas travelers, a rate that has remained almost unchanged from previous years.
 
Baby boomers born between 1947 and 1949 have reached retirement age, making them leaders of the travel boom. A package tour titled, “Traveling with grandchildren,” planned by travel company Club Tourism International Inc., is selling at a 1.5-fold increase from a year earlier.
 
Observers in the travel and tourism industry believe such good business trends will continue leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

(source : the-japan-news.com)