Japan Golden Week Travel: Update May 20, 2024.

 

Less domestic travelers seen in Japan's Golden Week amid inflation

Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240511/p2g/00m/0na/037000c

Ideas:

Also the idea that some or many people might be tired to having to travel during the Golden Week period, and or don't want to be among the large crowds that go to the trendy places.

As far as accommodation feels go, its quite possible that many hotels have increased prices as way to make up for their losses during the pandemic, when the service sector was hit the hardest with layoffs and closures.

And yes, as foreign tourists increase, meaning demand increases hotels will naturally increase prices. The weak yen has a lot of positives for the Japanese economy, but at the same time there are just as many negatives for the economy.

Real wages are always the key as they are a purchasing power variable that affects most people in an economy. As inflation cuts into their extra income households realize they need to cut back on something as they see travel it a way to cut spending, as they can't cut too much related to households energy spending.

And maybe rural households saw they don't have the extra funds to travel to any of the trendy populations area as their funds have been reduced.

And again, maybe this Golden Week period, with the huge increase in foreign tourists that might have turned off many Japanese, especially in the rural areas who usually don't see much foreigners around their area.

This could be a coming trend, as maybe Japanese tourists are not going to travel as much as especially when everyone else travels, as maybe they don't want to be around huge crowds of people. And of course inflation might be another major reason for not traveling during the Golden Week period,

Kyoto and Tokyo will continue to get their share of tourists, both domestic and foreign, but maybe the domestic tourists, again, might start to stay away as they don't want to be around so many foreign tourists.

Yes, Japanese households, people, need to find ways to cut back and food and even electricity are unavoidable expenses so they cut back on things they can such a travel.

The year 2019, in Japan, and maybe globally seemed like a boom time year, and maybe there was wide spread travel and spending before the pandemic. It was kind of like the a travel and spending frenzy before the storm.

I traveled to Japan, Yokohama, twice in the fall of 2019, and it was during the Japan Rugby World Cup, but I wasn't there for the Rugby World Cup and everything in Japan, at that time, was like a festival, shoppers were going crazy.

It was also the time shoppers were buying a lot as in Nov. 1 the Japanese government was going to intact a sales tax increase which would put the sales tax at 10 percent.

There as now many ways to track the movement of people, and GPS and AI are now becoming very popular ways to see what is happening.

At the same time, maybe some retail stores and other companies are using AI to track the buying habit so shoppers and we might begin that in the coming months, not years as AI is moving fast.

Of course companies need to make sure they are using AI in an ethical way as to not impede the privacy of shoppers.

Have a nice day and be safe!!