Summary of Research Findings

The research was carried out on extensive 88 domestic leisure-related markets, including the markets of travel and food services. Because the leisure industry is formed by a broad range of related markets, it is no exaggeration to say that everything in the world can be related to leisure, depending on how people look at it. The report for this year, too, covered the trends of various categories within the leisure industry.

Although the leisure-related markets had been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis, lift of behavior restrictions fueled many markets to be on the road for recovery.  This included the travel market, underway for remarkable recovery supported by the governmental measures to stimulate tourism demand.
Online consumption represented by music streaming and paid video streaming services that had been in strong demand even amid the COVID crisis still showed steady growth. Government-controlled competitive sports also increased the sales, as the method of internet polls widespread. Outdoor leisure activities such as camping, golf, and fishing that had attracted attention during COVID crisis for providing more space from other people in open air, faced a challenge to increase new customers, as behavior restrictions being alleviated gradually and as the boom for outdoor leisure was said to have ended, encouraging people to enjoy other types of leisure activities.

Meanwhile, recovery was delayed for some markets that had kept on shrinking even before COVID situations and that seemed not to be able to restore to pre-COVID level. This was represented by the pachinko market. Ever since the corona crisis, the customers, mainly older people, had not come back. Replacement of gaming machines mandated under the revisions of gaming machine regulations by the end of January 2022 also affected the operation of pachinko parlor business. The number of pachinko parlors that continued declining counted 7,665 as of the end of 2022, losing 793 pachinko parlors in just a year.

Though leisure-related markets are on the way to escape from the lingering COVID influence, it does not mean that it simply returns to what it used to be before COVID. The types and forms of leisure required have been changing in the process of social lives back to normal.

Noteworthy Topics

Will Accelerated Digitalization in Travel Market Amid COVID Be Effective After COVID?

The travel market went through a severe blow by COVID-19 pandemic but has been rapidly picking up after alleviation or lift of behavior restrictions.
Travel agencies had made efforts to change what and how to provide services even before COVID, but the pandemic triggered them to address larger-scale innovations, which fueled reorganization while striving to reduce costs, thereby to aim for more efficient operations. When providing services, expanded demand for non-face-to-face services encouraged them to consider how store operations should be and to accelerate digitalization efforts. In the process of rapid market recovery, the challenge was how to effectively utilize digitalized services to fuse into real services.

In the medium- to long-term, travel arrangement services by domestic online travel agents (OTAs) including Jalan, Rakuten Travel, etc., as well as overseas OTAs such as Booking.com, Expedia, Trip.com, etc., have become widespread. While an increasing number of consumers has started using OTAs for travel arrangements, those traditional travel agencies equipped with stores, such as JTB and Nippon Travel Agency, have strived to differentiate from OTAs by new store rollout featuring luxury spaces, new establishment of dedicated lounges, courteous customer services, and cordial travel consultations.
Meanwhile, the impact of COVID-19 crisis had not only prompted such agencies to refrain from opening stores during the declaration of the state of emergency, but also to consider how to operate stores in the increasing demand for non-face-to-face services. This urged the agencies to promote digital transformations for providing services, enabling them to offer one-stop online services from consultation of travel destinations, booking, arrangement, and to consultation during the travel. Even after the degradation of COVID-19 to class 5 in May 2023 under the Infectious Disease Control Law and after the lift of behavior restrictions, the agencies have continued accepting consultations via online or from remote places. While an increasing number of people have started visiting real stores, some stores have completely shifted to accept only reserved customers, leading non-reserved customers to wait for hours in some cases.
While the digitalization efforts during the COVID crisis are expected to take effect for streamlining and for time saving even after the daily lives being back to normal. To ensure this, however, it is necessary to show the overall picture of successful integration of “physical” and “digital” worlds to both employees and consumers in an easy-to-understand manner. At present, it is difficult to say that the effect has brought about maximum results, and future efforts are needed to be observed.

Research Outline