Skyscanner and HIS talked about the recent Japanese overseas traveler trends based on their data at a media roundtable. Skyscanner introduced a logical travel as a new travel style to maximize cost performance, and HIS said that they are focusing on personalization based on AI analysis.
New trends seen in 2025
Kentaro Okada, Skyscanner Japan Commercial Lead/Travel Expert, picked ‘sharing experience’ as a keyword in 2025, pointing out that travel to share experiences with someone else, such as art or sports-purposed travel or ‘reset travel’ to refresh mental health, was extended.
Kiyotaka Mukai, HIS Overseas Travel Sales Division FIT Group leader, referred to ‘earlier flight booking,’ ‘commitment to contents in an itinerary’ and ‘more luxury movement.’ He said, “More travelers spent money for intellectual experiences particularly in Europe, and more travelers chose business class or premium economy class seats for more luxury movement.”
スカイスキャナーの岡田氏
What will happen in 2026?
They prospected Japanese overseas traveler trends in 2026. “Individual preferences will be more diversified, and travels to focus on being yourself will be more preferred,” Okada said. “Travel is evolving to a method to express their own values and lifestyles.”
According to the latest Skyscanner survey, 66% of Japanese overseas travelers answered that they have psychological burdens, and the biggest reason was ‘they concern about cost (74%).’ Okada said, “The biggest factor to motivate people to travel abroad is reliable figures to convince them,” and introduced ‘logical travel’ as a new travel style to maximize cost performance logically and to make decisions based on data.
Mukai agreed with what Okada mentioned, and pointed out that there is a trend to combine compromising parts with non-compromising parts.
HISの向井氏
Both Skyscanner and HIS see AI as a key
Okada revealed that Skyscanner has been developing AI agent to propose and book the best travel plan autonomously in collaboration with OpenAI and Microsoft. He said, “Survey results also show that people are uneasy about booking with AI. Skyscanner will continue to place importance on maintaining transparency and fair comparisons.”
Mukai explained that HIS is strengthening the integration of its physical stores and digital platforms. He noted that customers are increasingly visiting physical stores after searching online. "By using AI to analyze customers' online behavioral history and having consultants understand the results in advance, our conversion rate has increased by approximately 5 percentage points," he said.
