‘Travel Trends 2025,’ the latest report on travel economic trend by Mastercard Economics Institute (MEI), finds that Asian countries including Japan become popular as next tourist destinations in this summer amid geopolitical risks and economic uncertainty.
For this year’s summer holiday season from June to September, the most popular destination is Tokyo, followed by Osaka, and Fukuoka is ranked 13th. Among top 15 destinations, eight cities in Asia are ranked. MEI explained that the top 2 of Tokyo and Osaka are influenced by the weak yen situation.
2025年夏の人気旅行先トップ15（Mastercard Economics Institute）
MEI analyzes the relevancy between weak yen and visitors to Japan, showing data that when the local currency against yen drops by 1%, visitors increase by 1.5% from China, 1.2% from Hong Kong or 1.1% from Taiwan. The exchange rate particularly influences Asian travelers’ trends.
国別の円安と訪日旅行者数の相関（Mastercard Economics Institute）
MEI introduced influences on travel cost by the exchange rate of the yen. In Singapore, for example, airfares and hotel cost rose by 1.6% and 3.9% respectively in the first half of 2024, while the yen dropped by 4.5% against Singapore dollar. As a result, the increase in costs was offset, and travel cost finally increased by 0.8% only year on year.
On the contrary, airfares and hotel cost rose slowly in the first two months of 2025, while the yen was slightly stronger. As a result, the travel cost rose by 3.5% year on year.
Wellness tourism and sports tourism
Saying that travelers prefer to travel styles to discover values and meanings, MEI pays particular attentions to wellness tourism and sports tourism.
According to MEI survey, top 3 wellness tourism destinations are Namibia, South Africa and Thailand. Thailand is valued as an advanced destination in relaxation experiences, such as mediation or retreat activities, and the self-care products.
For wildness tourism including nature experiences, tourist popularity is higher in New Zealand, Malaysia and Japan with a variety of national parks.
MEI also explained that watching a sport game becomes one of the motivations to choose a destination, citing the example that Japanese travelers spent 91% more money in the area within five miles from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles five days before and after the World Series in 2024 than usual. The growth rate was much higher than 15% of the world average.
For UEFA Champions League Final in London in June 2024, spending in the neighborhood tripled year on year.
