JTB Tourism Research & Consulting's "Smartphone Usage and Travel Consumption Survey (2025)," released December 17, 2025, puts smartphone booking of travel products at 70%. Every category surveyed showed a higher booking share than last year, which is the more telling number: buying on a phone is becoming the assumption rather than the option.

The survey ran in November 2025 across Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures plus the Nagoya and Osaka metropolitan areas, polling 10,000 people aged 18 to 69. The analysis draws on the 1,030 of them who had traveled domestically within the past year and use smartphones. The series began in 2013; this is the tenth edition.

Generative AI Emerges as Primary Information Source, Tripling Year-Over-Year

The share of people using generative AI to search for travel information went from 9.7% in 2024 to 28.8% in 2025, a jump of nearly 20 points and roughly triple the previous year.

Traditional communication functions like messaging, email, and news apps saw declining usage rates across the board. Instead, video and image-sharing platforms, streaming TV, and movies gained ground. Map apps and video-based search, both flagged as rising trends in last year's survey, slipped slightly. JTB's own summary describes generative AI as having simply won the information-search category outright.

There is another number worth noting. Every news medium, internet news included, declined, while "I don't read news" rose. Among information-gathering methods, "I don't search for information myself" also rose. JTB reads this as a strengthening sense that information is something delivered automatically rather than sought out. The surge in generative AI is not the result of more people actively looking things up.

AI Travel Services Expand, Usage Rate Approaches 60%

Overall AI service usage reached 58.7%, up approximately 10 percentage points from the previous year. The top desired AI services for travel destinations include "restaurant and gourmet information searches" (29.6%), "language translation" (25.1%), and "itinerary and route suggestions" (24.7%).

By gender and age, women in their 60s and their 30s to 40s show the strongest interest in gourmet searches. AI adoption is not a young-user story.

For unmanned services, preferences lean toward efficiency-enhancing features: "automated checkout" (32.0%), "tablet ordering" (26.9%), and "automated immigration" (19.0%) outpaced value-added services. This reflects the growing "time-performance" (タイパ) orientation among Japanese consumers, who increasingly prioritize time efficiency.

Social Media Landscape Shifts: Instagram Overtakes X

The top smartphone-accessed social platforms remain "LINE," "YouTube," "Instagram," and "X" (formerly Twitter). Notably, Instagram climbed from fourth to third place, surpassing X. Female users particularly drove X's declining usage rates, reshaping the social media power dynamics.

Among Gen Z users, "BeReal." has captured over 10% of women under 29, though it accounts for only 1.7% overall. This authentic, unfiltered social platform's growth trajectory may signal evolving preferences in how people share travel experiences.

E-Sports Participation Hits Record High, Notable Growth Among Men in Their 40s

E-sports play and viewing experience reached a record 18.0%, with men under 29 leading at 45.6%, followed by men in their 30s (36.9%) and 40s (33.0%).

The sharpest year-over-year change was in viewership among men in their 40s. JTB's reading is that school e-sports clubs and specialist schools have multiplied, putting the parent generation in contact with the scene.

Intent to attend e-sports in person, however, barely moved. The share answering "not interested" fell only from 70.9% to 68.3%. Within younger men the appetite is real: 61.6% of men under 29, 51.3% of men in their 30s, and 48.2% of men in their 40s expressed interest.

Cashless Society Takes Hold, While Workation Trends Fade

When asked about lifestyle changes over the past three years, "cashless payments" topped the list by a wide margin, confirming the deep penetration of digital payment methods. "Online shopping" also showed strong growth, indicating normalized e-commerce behavior.

Pandemic-era work patterns showed mixed results. While "online meetings and conferences" persisted, "telework from travel destinations," "coworking space usage," and "remote work" all declined. This suggests the workation boom may have been temporary rather than transformative.

High-Speed Internet Demand: Surprisingly Strong Among Older Travelers

Contrary to expectations, demand for stable, high-speed internet at travel destinations proved stronger among older generations than younger ones, and among women more than men. By demographic, those in their 60s expressed the highest demand for improved connectivity.

Top locations for desired internet improvements were "trains and stations" (54.1%), "accommodation facilities" (50.8%), and "shopping malls and commercial facilities" (38.4%). Reliable connectivity during travel and at destinations has become a critical quality factor.

From "Searching" to "Consulting": A Paradigm Shift

JTB reads the results as a shift from "searching" for information to "consulting" generative AI about it.

For the travel industry that is a turning point. Information gathering now finishes inside the AI without the traveler ever reaching a company website, and some sites have seen visitor numbers fall accordingly. Put the other way: the place where you can put an unexpected option in front of someone has moved to the AI.

JTB Tourism Research notes that the key challenge ahead is "identifying opportunities to input appropriate information to target audiences and expand latent demand."

Update: The survey series has been renamed. From 2026 it is called "Exploring How Technological Change Affects Consumers and Travel," with the latest edition published on July 6, 2026. That the word "smartphone" has dropped out of the survey's own title says something about the past decade (as of September 2026).

How Digital is Travel in Your Country?

How digitalized is travel in your country? Has smartphone booking become mainstream? Is generative AI being used for trip planning? We'd love to hear about the situation where you live.