Changing Supply System of Japanese Tourism to Canada

Abstract

The supply system of Japanese tourism to Canada has been changing with the increase in the number of Japanese travelers to Canada since the restriction on overseas travel was lifted in 1964. This paper examines long-term changes in the tourism supply system to Canada by analyzing the relationship between intermediaries' strategies and destinations.
By the 1970s, the tourism supply system for Japanese travel to the USA included that to Canada, where outbound travel agencies established by Japanese-Canadians played an important role in the local operations of Japanese travel to Canada. Japanese destinations in Canada therefore were a part of travel to North America.
In the 1980s, Japanese tour companies began to offer numerous package tours to Canada, some of which covered the off-peak season. At the same time, tour companies in Japan established subsidiaries in Vancouver, starting flexible tour operations. The tourism supply system to Canada therefore became independent of that to the USA.
From the mid-1990s, after the peak in the number of Japanese travelers to Canada had been reached, some larger Japanese tour companies have been able to maintain both numerical and functional flexibility of their labor force in terms of the seasonality of Japanese travel to Canada.