Here in the United States, international travel is all the rage, including for young people. In many ways that might not even be a good thing — due to the affordability problem that exists, so many young people don’t even view buying a house as realistic, so they don’t bother saving up, and instead, spend money on things that are attainable, like a trip (I’m generalizing here, but broadly, I think it’s accurate).
Along those lines, it’s interesting to hear how Japan Airlines is seemingly facing a very different problem… young people in the carrier’s home country aren’t traveling abroad!
Japan Airlines has a travel crisis among young people
Japan Airlines President Mitsuko Tottori has expressed concern about a trend she’s noticing at her airline — young people are moving away from international travel, and are instead choosing to travel domestically. As she explained, “if we don’t get young people to travel abroad, it will have a huge impact on the growth of the Japanese economy.”
Now, I imagine that a major reason for this trend is that the Japanese Yen is incredibly weak, making it very expensive for Japanese people to travel abroad. Even beyond the weak currency, travel overall has become so expensive nowadays, especially in places like the United States, Europe, etc.
As she explained, “prices and the weak yen are definitely involved in this, and as for the weak yen, we are just praying that it will appreciate even a little.” Since taking over at the airline in early 2024, she has viewed this as one of the biggest long term challenges the company faces, and she constantly encourages Japanese travelers to go abroad for their vacations.
The airline has been pursuing a variety of initiatives to encourage international travel among younger locals, including launching the DREAM MILES PASS and JAL Card Skymate program to make it more affordable for young people to travel, and painting an aircraft with a livery featuring Shohei Ohtani.
I’m not sure this travel trend is all bad news
A weak currency is obviously a double-edged sword for airlines — it makes it cheap for foreigners to visit the country, and expensive for locals to travel abroad. While I can understand how this isn’t great for airlines, I’d disagree with the claim that “it will have a huge impact on the growth of the Japanese economy.”
Quite to the contrary, if you have Japanese people traveling domestically, and foreigners traveling to Japan at record numbers, that seems ideal for the economy. Perhaps it’s bad for the airline specifically, but I’m not even sure that’s fully the case, because Japan’s record tourism numbers are probably largely thanks to the weak currency.
There are definitely some markets where the lack of outbound travel is felt the most. For example, Hawaii used to be incredibly popular with Japanese visitors, but between the weak currency, skyrocketing hotel rates in the United States, and the lack of interest among younger generations, that market has seen a brutal decline in demand. I wouldn’t be surprised if that simply doesn’t come back in the long term.
Bottom line
Japan Airlines’ President is concerned by the lack of young locals traveling abroad, and thinks it will have a huge impact on the growth of the Japanese economy. Obviously as an airline leader, you want to stimulate demand as much as possible across the board.
However, it’s pretty clear what’s going on here — with the weak Japanese Yen and the general increase in the cost of travel, going abroad has become unaffordable for many younger people in Japan. While that trend isn’t ideal in general, I’m not sure it’s actually a negative from the perspective of tourism in Japan. Japan is getting domestic tourism dollars from locals, while foreigners are also flocking to the country at record rates.
Anyway, I just found this interesting, given that the situation in Japan couldn’t be more opposite of what we’re seeing in the United States, where young people can’t seem to stay home.
What do you make of the concerns of Japan Airlines’ President?
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