The yen, near its lowest level in 33 years, makes Japan an attractive destination for more than 2 million foreign tourists.
TOKYO: Japan welcomed more than 2 million foreigners for the fourth straight month in September, official data showed on Wednesday, marking a near-complete recovery to pre-pandemic levels, even as the Chinese market has been slow to recover.
The number of foreign business and leisure visitors rose to 2. 18 million last month, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), up from 2. 16 million in August.
Visitor numbers rose to 96. 1% of 2019 degrees before the Covid-19 outbreak prompted restrictions around the world.
Japan ended some of the world’s strictest Covid-19 border restrictions a year ago by resuming visa-waiving for many countries, then ditched all remaining controls in May.
Arrivals maintained a recovery speed, peaking at 2. 32 million in July, as airlines ramped up overseas flights and the yen’s fall to its lowest level in 33 years made Japan a win-win destination.
“With inflation in the U. S. , everything is outrageously expensive, and coming here is much cheaper,” said John Hardisty, a 48-year-old Hawaiian engineer, recently shopping for groceries in Tokyo. “It’s like a difference between day and night. “night. “
The number of arrivals from 15 markets, including the United States, South Korea and Singapore, reached record levels for the month of September, JNTO said. Travelers from Mexico were a record for any given month.
Strong demand from these markets is helping to offset the number of travelers from mainland China, which is still 60% lower than in 2019, when Chinese accounted for nearly a third of all visitors and 40% of all tourism spending in Japan.
More than 17 million visitors came to Japan in the first nine months of 2023, according to JNTO data, up from a 2019 record of around 32 million.