TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Consolidated travel revenue of 14 companies*of JTB Group in May rose 8.5 percent from last year to 96,113 million yen, of which overseas travel was 29,962 million yen, up 15.7 percent. Overseas group travel, package tours, and FIT exhibited a good performance with a growth of 47.3 percent, 6.4 percent, and 24.8 percent, respectively. As to group travel, ordinary group saw a 35.4 percent growth, while educational tours recorded a stunning growth of 269.2 percent as they bounced back from the serious slump caused by the influenza epidemic a year ago. Sales of package tours were mixed; LOOK JTB was almost flat at a fractional increase of 0.3 percent, while media retailing scored a gain of 14.3 percent.

The number of customers handled rose 10.0 percent group-wide, and those booked on LOOK JTB were up 4.5 percent. From the viewpoint of JTB Group’s total customers, following destinations exhibited a positive growth over the previous year: Singapore (+66.6%), North America (+41.6%), China (+33.7%), Hong Kong (+30.3%), and Hawaii (+12.2%). As for LOOK JTB customers, the U.S. (+62.7%), Korea (+16.9%), Taiwan (+13.9%), and China (+11.0%) were in good shape; however, Europe and Oceania lost 3.9 percent and 22.8 percent respectively.

Sales of domestic travel climbed 5.1 percent to 63,297 million yen. Group travel was up 13.6 percent, but package tours sank 4.0 percent with Ace JTB falling 6.1 percent. Business of inbound travel was 2,854 million yen, up 15.5 percent.

Total revenue of 23 companies** of JTB Group was up 9.3 percent at 121,702 million yen, of which overseas travel was 39,921 million yen (+18.6%), domestic travel was 78,505 million yen (+4.9%), and inbound travel was 3,277 million yen (+13.7%).

* Fourteen companies of the Group are: JTB Hokkaido, JTB TOHOKU, JTB KANTO, JTB Tokyo Metropolitan, JTB Business World Tokyo, JTB Central Japan, JTB TOKAI, JTB Western Japan, JTB OSAKA, JTB Chugoku Shikoku, JTB KYUSHU, iJTB, JTB Global Marketing & Travel, and JTB Corp.

** Twenty-three companies of the Group are: in addition to the above 13 companies other than JTB Corp., JTB TRAVELAND, JTB Business Travel Solutions, JTB TRAVEL KYUSHU, JTB OKINAWA, JTB Asia Tourist, PTS, JTB Grand Tours & Services, JTB ISETAN TRAVEL SERVICE, JTB Media Retailing, and ASAHI SUN TOURS.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Aggregate travel revenue of 14 companies of JTB Group was 78,843 million yen in April, down 1.2 percent from last year, of which overseas travel was 25,791 million yen, down 7.3 percent. Overseas group travel and FIT rose 8.3 percent and 21.4 percent respectively, but package tours slumped 13.7 percent due in some part to Europe-bound tour cancellations caused by Iceland’s volcanic eruption.

With relation to overseas group travel, religious groups, groups from organizations and institutions, and corporate groups registered a growth of 67.6 percent, 16.4 percent, and 14.4 percent respectively, although educational groups dropped 3.5 percent. In package tours, LOOK JTB fell 22.2 percent and media-supported retailing dipped 10.6 percent.

Total number of overseas travelers handled by the 14 group companies declined 11 percent. Seen by destination, Hong Kong and China were strong with a growth of 24.1 percent and 5.9 percent respectively, while North America sagged 5.2 percent and Europe/Russia slid 5.9 percent. The number of customers on LOOK JTB plunged 25.6 percent, with a decline of 10.2 percent to China, 16 percent to the U.S., 16.6 percent to Micronesia, 26.3 percent to Hawaii, and 26.4 percent to Europe.

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JTB Corp. posted the biggest net loss on record of 14,557 million yen in the consolidated financial results for the fiscal year 2009 (April 1, 2009 – March 31, 2010). Stagnant economy, spread of the new type of influenza, and modal shift of domestic travel sales channel to Internet are said to have driven the agency to leaner revenue of 1,121,280 million yen, down 12.1 percent from the previous year. Despite the efforts to cut back on the sales administrative expenses by 15,250 million yen, it booked operating loss of 3,393 million yen, being unable to cover the dent in revenue. It recorded recurring loss of 1,668 million yen and net loss of 10,422 million yen because of extraordinary expenses for store scrapping and relocation and early retirement in line with the group’s restructuring plan.

Travel sales dipped 12.9 percent to 990.649 million yen, shy of one trillion yen. Overseas travel revenue fell 17.4 percent to 407,146 million yen due to the outbreak of H1N1 flu and the price drop of package tour LOOK JTB, with the customers handled having dropped 7 percent to 3,293,061. It is noted, however, that customers booked on package tours such as LOOK JTB, JTB Grand Tour & Service (tours produced in an integrated manner from planning and sales to escorting), and media-supported tours increased 1.9 percent to 1,872,000. In addition, JTB strove to sell inclusive tour charters and, as the result, customers handled on them showed a growth of 20 percent to 103,000.

Sales of domestic travel sank 10 percent to 539,624 million yen as the agency missed out on travelers going for Internet bookings although business of educational tours was robust. Inbound travel was dull on account of strong yen with revenue of 43,879 million yen, down 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that sales achieved at foreign visitors’ booking website “” grew 19.6 percent over the previous year to 1,080 million yen with 67,300 customers, up 36 percent.

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