From perfectly filtered social media posts to heartfelt recollections of friends, visually stunning scenes from movies, and glossy magazine covers, travelers are exposed to an array of inspiration sources that seed ideas of spectacular places they hope to one day see. But with a world of options, travelers must carefully whittle down their options to the one that most speaks to their wishes. Most travelers take just a handful of leisure trips each year. After accounting for the trips to visit family and friends or to attend social obligations – weddings, graduations, reunions – the pool of trips left where travelers actually get to choose their destination independently shrinks. Within various markets across the globe, including the U.S., Brazil, Australia, China, Mexico, Germany and the U.K, less than half of leisure travelers traveled to a destination they could choose at their whim over the past year.

Already the world’s largest regional travel market, Asia Pacific (APAC) continues to develop rapidly. Tourism infrastructure improvements, more advanced telecommunications and digital payments access are all fueling travel bookings growth, and the online share of travel revenue is advancing quickly. This report presents findings on the Asia Pacific leisure travel market, with sizing and projections from 2016-2022.

Japan remains the second-largest travel market in APAC, well behind China, but is more than three times the size of India as well as Australia/New Zealand (ANZ). Market growth will accelerate to nearly 6% in 2020 due in part to Tokyo’s hosting of the Summer Olympics, before experiencing a correction in 2021. This report provides current data, charts and analysis on Japan’s travel market, with sizing and projections from 2016-2022.