Economic Development and The Evolution of Japanese Overseas Tourism, 1964–1994

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  • LCLonny E. Carlile
    Lonny E. Carlile
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Abstract
Japanese overseas tourism has in recent years become a critical but relatively unfamiliar component of global tourism. The article provides an overview of the evolution of Japanese overseas tourism over the last 30 years with a focus on how the national economic development and the consequent socioeconomic changes influenced consumer preferences, industry structure, firm strategies, and, above all, the mode of overseas tourism travel. It details how the sudden liberalisation and rapid expansion of Japanese overseas tourism contributed to the emergence of the package tour as the primary medium for overseas Japanese tourism as well as to the emergence of an industry structured around a group of large, domestically-based package tour wholesalers. It discusses how the subsequent development of the Japanese economy led to more pluralistic consumer demand and how this stimulated a shift in marketing strategy on the part of the leading travel firms from an efficiency-oriented, mass “production”-based one to a more segmented approach. In addition, government policy shifted from one that attempted to minimize outbound travel to one that, at least nominally, actively sought to encourage overseas Japanese tourism.

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