Golden Week: cheaper, dispersed

Golden Week travel in Japan is getting cheaper and less concentrated in the usual big-city circuit, even as more people plan to get away. (nippon.com) JTB estimates 23.9 million domestic trips during the April 25 to May 7 period, up 1.7% from a year earlier and almost back to the 24.0 million recorded in 2019, before the pandemic. (nippon.com) But travelers are trimming what they spend. JTB says average domestic travel spending per person will fall 2.1% to ¥46,000, while Intage found the average Golden Week holiday budget at ¥27,660, down 5.4% from 2025. (nippon.com; jen.jiji.com) The shorter trip is becoming the default. JTB found that one-night, two-day trips rose 6.4 percentage points to 39.9%, while trips lasting three nights and four days fell 3.6 points to 16.2%. (nippon.com) That shift is showing up in where people go. A JTB-backed roundup reported growing interest in destinations outside Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, including Shikoku, as travelers look for lower-cost, less crowded options. (travelandtourworld.com) The squeeze is also keeping many people home. Intage’s survey of 5,000 people found 40% had no plans for the holiday period, and 49.2% cited inflation and the weak yen as reasons budgets were shrinking. (jen.jiji.com) Golden Week is one of Japan’s biggest annual travel periods, built around national holidays that this year cluster around April 29 and May 2 to May 6. Cities and tourism operators still program the week heavily, with Time Out Osaka listing events across April 29 to May 6. (nippon.com; timeout.com) Spring flowers remain part of the draw even for travelers staying closer to home. Mainichi reported that red, white, pink and purple azaleas around Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Dome were in full bloom on April 21 and expected to stay at their best through late April. (mainichi.jp) There is one place Japanese travelers are spending more freely: overseas. JTB expects outbound travelers to rise 8.5% to 572,000, with average spending up 2.2% to ¥329,000, led by trips to South Korea, Taiwan and China. (nippon.com) So this year’s Golden Week looks less like a single nationwide rush to the same hotspots and more like a patchwork of shorter, cheaper trips — and more people deciding not to travel at all. (nippon.com; jen.jiji.com)