Japan Travel Trade Weekly News
Keeping you abreast of what's going on in the
Japanese travel and tourism industries.
News consolidated by Travel Vision, Inc. updated every week.
JTB forecasts 17.35 Million Outbound Travelers for 2008, Nearly Same
As 2007
January 2008
JTB Corp. released an outlook of travel market for 2008, in which
it forecasts 17.35 million outbound travelers, up 0.1 percent from
2007, 316.1 million domestic travelers, up 0.5 percent and a positive
growth for the first time in five years, and 9 million inbound
travelers, up 8.4 percent. The forecast is based on its estimation
for 2007, that is, 17.33 million outbound travelers, down 1.1 percent
from 2006, 314.54 domestic travelers, down 0.2 percent, and 8.3
million inbound travelers, up 13.2 percent.
A negative growth of leisure travel caused by sluggish demand
from youth and local markets, high level of fuel surcharge, and weak
tone of the yen rate throughout the year - these are the factors to
which JTB ascribes the stale overseas travel market in 2007. It
predicts further deterioration of travel sentiment for the first half
of this year because of another hike of oil surcharge scheduled in
January.
However, it is generally assumed that the market has matured to a
degree and there will be no dramatic ups and downs seen for the time
being, continues the JTB spokesman. Since many travelers become
experienced in overseas travel more or less, they feel compelled in
no way to go abroad hurriedly; consequently, harmful rumors as
happened to China could trigger a downswing in the number of
visitors, while they would soon regain momentum once the bad images
are wiped out by, for instance, the success of the Beijing Olympic
Games 2008. In addition, some stimulating measures are being
conceived by Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) toward the
goal of 20 million outbound travelers.
So JTB has a view that outbound traveler will make a comeback
after the Beijing Olympic, possibly from September. Best-selling
destinations are supposed to be beach resorts in Asia like Bali,
Macau, and other Asian destinations.
Japanese New Year Vacation Traffic Brings JAL Nearly 80% Load Factor
and ANA Record-High 142,000 Passengers
January 2008
During the Japanese New Year vacation period from December 28 to
January 6, 2008, the aggregated number of seats supplied by JAL and
ANA declined 2.3% to 731,446 and the total number of passengers
carried by both airlines fell 1.3% to 558,731 compared to the same
vacation period a year earlier. By airline groups, JAL seat supply
was down 4.6% to 536,018 seats and the number of passengers carried
was also down 3.3% to 416,709, while ANA seat supply was up 4.8% to
195,428 and the number of passengers was also up 5.1% to 142,022.
The JAL Group carried more passengers on routes that include
Transpacific, Europe, China and Korea, registering a higher seat load
factor year-on-year. On Hawaii, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Guam
routes, however, the number of passengers declined due to the
capacity reduction, although the seat load factor rose compared to
the prior-year period. The seat load factor of the whole network
averaged 77.7%, but Hawaii, Transpacific, Oceania, Guam and Korea
routes showed a seat load factor exceeding 85%.
The Group operated 35 extra flights to Honolulu, 4 to Guam, 2 to
Transpacific and 1 to Hong Kong, totaling 42 extra flights, 3 less
flights from the year-ago period. Also operated by the JAL Group were
charter flights, 10 flights each to Palau and Honolulu, 8 to Saipan
and 6 each to Fairbanks, Alaska and Denpasar in Indonesia. Other
destinations such as Siem Reap in Cambodia, Majuro in Republic of the
Marshall Islands, Macau, Alice Springs and Darwin in Australia were
also served by charter flights which totaled 54 with an increase of 2
flights from the previous year.
The ANA Group, on the other-hand, carried 57,537 passengers to
China, up 9.6% and 33,403 to Asia, up 10.3%. The transpacific route
registered an increase of 5.1% to 19,532, followed by the Europe
route with an increase of 3.7% to 15,247. Overall, the ANA Group
achieved robust traffic results, hitting a record high in terms of
passenger numbers, exceeding the last year's winter vacation period.
2 flights operated from KIX to Guam were the only extra flights by
the ANA Group.
H.I.S. Posts Declined Profit despite Record-high Revenue, Looks into
Store-scrapping as Transitional Measure
January 2008
H.I.S. Co. posted record-high revenue in the fiscal year ended in
October 2007 and yet operating profit, pretax profit, and net profit
fell from the previous year. It booked declined profits for the first
time since 2003 when SARS outbreak threw the travel market into
turmoil.
Revenue grew 10.1 percent to 362,084 million yen but cost of
sales went up 10.9 percent to 310,647 million yen with defrayment of
oil surcharge. Selling, general and administrative expenses (SGA)
also went up 8.6 percent to 45,074 million yen. Consequently,
operating profit slipped 12.1 percent to 6,362 million yen, pretax
profit sank 7.1 percent to 7,510 million yen, and net profit declined
7.1 percent to 4,521 million yen. Personnel cost, rent, and
advertisement constitutes about 80 percent of SGA, and an increase of
advertising expenses was most remarkable with 15 percent growth at
5,800 million yen.
Yoshio Suzuki, president of H.I.S., takes the results seriously.
He said, "Irrespective of uncertainties of the market, we continued
to make efforts in our own way sticking to our established policy
but, at the end of the day, we were embroiled in a stiff competition
under the influence of fuel surcharge problem. We will strive to
attain a two-digit growth for the new fiscal year, both in revenue
and profit."
His goal for the midterm ending in April 2008 is 3,300 million
yen in operating profit, up 12.2 percent, 3,800 million yen in pretax
profit, up 13.5 percent, and 2,300 million yen in net profit, up 13.3
percent, on revenue of 187,000 million yen, up 10.9 percent, and for
the full year ending in October 2008, 8,100 million yen in operating
profit, up 27.3 percent, 9,100 million yen in pretax profit, up 21.2
percent, and 5,400 million yen in net profit, up 19.4 percent, on
revenue of 410,000 million yen, up 13.2 percent.
Asked about the means of achieving these goals, Mr. Suzuki said,
"Old practices do not work any more. Since a sustainable growth is no
longer a matter of course, we reexamine performance of our stores and
must scrap some of them if their profitability is questioned. Online
sales and store sales are definitely the platform of our business.
While our package tour sales have grown significantly, I suspect our
arrangement capability for FIT customers, a source of our strength,
is failing. We must shore up face-to- face sales more than ever." He
also suggested the company was going to gear up corporate and group
business.
With regard to the swollen advertising expenses, the company
intensified advertising ahead of the summer season in fear of slow
sales, but Mr. Suzuki concedes it was unsuccessful because
anticipated profit did not follow. He said in the meantime, "Our
basic advertising policy remains unshaken and is carried over to the
new fiscal year. What is really needed is we have to devise an
effective way to gain profit out of the publicity."
In the number of customers handled during the year by
destination, North America lost 7.4 percent and Europe did 1.4
percent, so these are the areas the company wants to promote
specially in this term. China and Asia were in good performance on
the contrary. Business to China was mostly related with air ticket
sales for business travelers, so it was little affected by harmful
rumors. Details of sales and the number of customers are listed
below.
* Sales Achieved by H.I.S. in FY 2007 by Destination (in million yen)
(Destination: revenue in FY 2007 | revenue in FY 2006 | % change)
North America: 40,244 | 38,914 | +3.4%
Europe: 55,907 | 53,603 | +4.3%
Asia: 121,238 | 106,151 | +14.2%
Oceania: 15,759 | 14,170 | +11.2%
Hawaii+Guam+Saipan: 53,918 | 48,547 | +11.1%
Others: 12,203 | 10,844 | +12.5%
Total: 299,272 | 272,231 | +9.9%
* Number of Customers Handled by H.I.S. in FY 2007 by Destination
(Destination: customers in FY 2007 | customers in FY 2006 | % change)
North America: 235,611 | 254,486 | -7.4%
Europe: 257,532 | 261,548 | -1.5%
Asia: 1,397,357 | 1,292,037 | +8.2%
Oceania: 93,136 | 92,332 | +0.9%
Hawaii+Guam+Saipan: 418,042 | 413,975 / +1.0%
Others: 53,042 | 46,875 | +13.2%
Total: 2,454,720 | 2,361,253 | +4.0%
|
RSS
