Tokyo Cheapo & Japan Cheapo Spring Survey
In this report, using the data from our Spring 2017 survey along with
historical website data, we examine some recent trends among English-speaking tourists visiting Japan. Overall
there were 994 respondents, with 84% residing outside Japan and 16% foreign residents of Japan. This detailed
survey data, along with the average 1-million page views per month across Tokyo Cheapo and Japan Cheapo, allows us
to uncover some interesting insights about current inbound tourism trends in Japan.
Interests & Confidence Traveling in Japan
We asked people about their interests, confidence and problems traveling in Japan.
“Culture and tradition” came up as the biggest interest, with “Food” a close
second, but also a potential pain point as many respondents mentioned lack of English signage, trouble making
reservations, etc. (see “Food & Restaurants” below).
Japanese subcultures (anime, manga, fashion, etc.) are also a
strong draw, but not a majority interest.
What Interests You About Japan?
How Confident Are You Traveling In Japan?
Food & Restaurants
While almost 90% of respondents indicated Japanese food was one of their interests,
about 25% of respondents either specifically mentioned restaurant issues or scored low in confidence on the
restaurant/food confidence questions. Common problems cited were, a) making reservations, b) lack of English menu,
c) trouble ordering, d) inability to cater to special diets (vegetarian, halal, etc.).
“Lots of restaurants we tried did not have English menus, we ended up picking where to eat more based on if they
had an English menu or ticket machine than on what the food type was.”
“I’m vegetarian so finding food was a nightmare! Vegetarian restaurants were few and far between.”
Transportation
Most people indicated they were okay or confident traveling around Japan, with less than
10% indicating they were not confident. Moreover the frequency of transport-related complaints and issues is
trending down slightly since 2014.
Booking Services + Internet Connectivity
Which Booking Services Have You Used?
Booking.com and Airbnb were the most used booking services in our 2017 survey.
It is also interesting to note that Airbnb has consistently been a
popular Tokyo accommodation choice with our readers. Previous surveys indicate that about 40% of our users stay in
Airbnb accommodations, with traffic data on our websites supporting that pattern. Tour booking brands have a much
smaller reach than accommodation and travel booking sites—Viator being the biggest with about 5% reach among
respondents. Japanese booking brands/websites (Rakuten,Japanican and others) had very little reach—only about 2%
reach. Many respondents reported problems associated with booking procedures or Japanese websites. Moreover the
trend appears to be getting worse, with twice as many mentions of such problems in our Spring 2017 versus our
previous survey 18 months prior. Perhaps due to the fact that while globally the internet becomes a much more
user-friendly experience, many Japanese travel websites remain Japanese only, or stuck with outdated technology
and design. “Japanese web sites to book places/experiences – they are usually only in Japanese and the layout is
old and not user-friendly”
Internet
2015 Results
2017 Results
Places
Awareness and interest in places around Japan
We asked people about places other than Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka that they have (or have not) heard of and
if they we’re interested in going. People most wanted to go to Hiroshima, Hakone, Nara and Nikko. In general, and
perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a strong correlation with how well known the place is and how much interest there
is in going. However, Nagasaki was #2 "heard of", but received lower interest relative to others—for example Nikko
was less well known but there was stronger interest. This is likely explained by Nagasaki being well known from
the Second World War, whereas Nikko is known as a World Heritage Site. As people tend to gravitate towards the
familiar, Nagasaki has perhaps an opportunity to leverage this fact and with competent PR efforts could vastly
increase interest from tourists. As already mentioned in various other media (such as McKinsey & Co.) many of
Japan’s potential tourist attractions are comparatively unknown. But with the continuing rise in inbound tourism
to Japan, perhaps preferences and patterns of niche interest will have time to develop. For context, note the
niche popularity of the Cotswalds in the UK among Japanese (and recently South Korean) tourists.
What Tourists Have Difficulty With in Japan
In addition to specific multiple choice answers, we also asked from respondents for general feedback on
what they found difficult about being a tourist in Japan. Here’s a chart showing the general categories of issues
for our latest survey and two previous ones: As mentioned above, quite a few people commented on issues trying to
book things, either because there is no online system, or some other confusion factor (eg. the process for getting
tickets to the Ghibli Museum). There were also quite a few comments along the lines of "[It’s] hard to find info
for off-the-beaten-track places." And on a positive note, quite a few people explicitly said "no problems".