2026 Summer Holiday Travel Trends, Read from JTB’s Estimate

Average cost of a domestic trip (per person)JPY 48,500plannedJTB estimate / 103.2% of last year

Survey

JTB, travel trends for the 2026 summer holiday (15 July – 31 August), published 2 July 2026

Travellers in total

71.17 million (95.4% of last year)

Spending in total

JPY 4.0474 trillion (98.3%)

Domestic

69.00 million travellers (95.6%), JPY 48,500 a head (103.2%)

Overseas

2.17 million travellers (91.2%), JPY 323,000 a head (106.3%)

Checked on

2026-09-20

JTB’s estimate of 2 July 2026 puts 71.17 million people on the move between 15 July and 31 August, 95.4% of last year, with the average domestic trip at JPY 48,500 a head, or 103.2%. Fewer departures, more money on each one.

Headcount at 95.4% against a domestic average of 103.2%: what fell was the number of travellers, not the budget

Total spending held at JPY 4.0474 trillion, 98.3%, a shallower fall than the headcount because the per-head figure rose, and overseas travel shows the split more sharply still. 2.17 million travellers is 91.2% of last year, while the average cost climbed to JPY 323,000, or 106.3%. Close to one person in ten dropped the trip; those who went paid roughly JPY 20,000 more than in 2025. Measured in spending, the domestic side came to JPY 3.3465 trillion (98.6%) against JPY 700.9 billion abroad (96.9%), so the deeper fall is the overseas one. Against the domestic JPY 48,500 the overseas average is a factor of 6.7, and the size of that gap is what pulled destinations closer to home. JTB reads the behaviour as thrift and contrivance — paying properly for a few things and thinly for the rest.

Where it landed is specific. Among those who did go abroad, Korea took 26.2% and Taiwan 16.2%, up 10.1 and 10.0 points on last year, and Asia as a whole accounted for 79.5%. The under-JPY-50,000 bracket grew as well, to 12.4% and up 2.7 points. Airfares moved the same way through July. Peach put domestic seats at JPY 4,000 and Seoul at JPY 5,000, and ZIPAIR sold Narita to Incheon at JPY 6,500. The floor for short-haul Asia was sitting level with the domestic network.

The first reason people gave for staying home, though, was not the money. “The summer holiday is crowded” came top at 29.2%, ahead of “we cannot afford it” at 26.3%. So the lever is the date rather than the budget — except that the choice of replacement date can reverse the result. JTB named the dispersal target itself: the five-day run of public holidays waiting in September. Put those dates, 19 to 23 September 2026, against the Tokyo Disney Resort price calendar and the adult 1-Day Passport is JPY 10,900 on all five of them, against JPY 9,900 on the weekdays either side (as of 14 September 2026). Move the trip onto a long weekend and one peak is traded for another. The shift pays only when the new dates are weekdays.

When the dates cannot move, the hours still can. The most common answer on coping with the heat was sightseeing and activities kept indoors, at 15.8%. Sit out the hot hours in the room or an indoor venue, leave from late afternoon, and the places that price their evening admission lower become the cheap half of the day — the USJ summer night event is priced that way. Transport went in the same direction: private cars fell 2.0 points to 49.6% and rental cars 1.2 points to 9.6%. In Hokkaido, a three-day, two-night Sapporo and Otaru itinerary built around trains removes the summer rental-car rate from the budget before it is ever quoted. Rooms are worth holding early on a free-cancellation rate through a site such as Klook and re-booking if a better rate appears.

When does the next airfare sale come? Six weeks of records and what is bookable now →

Source: JTB, travel trends for the 2026 summer holiday, 15 July to 31 August (2 July 2026, checked on 2026-09-20) / Tokyo Disney Resort official ticket page, September price calendar (checked on 2026-09-14) / Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5 (Wikimedia Commons)