Tourism to Japan all but halted for more than two years during the pandemic
Japan received a record number of cases in December, official data showed on Wednesday, ending a year of immediate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of foreign business and leisure travelers rose to 2. 73 million last month from 2. 44 million in November, according to information from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).
This is the number of tourists ever recorded during the month of December and approximately 8% more than the pre-pandemic point observed in 2019.
For the full-year 2023, a little more than 25 million visitors arrived in Japan, the agency said.
Tourism in Japan has still been paralyzed during more than two years of the pandemic, and the country implemented some of the strictest border controls in the world. But arrivals temporarily picked up after the government resumed visa-free travel for many countries in October 2022. .
Arrivals have topped 2 million each month since June last year, driven by a weakening yen that makes Japan less expensive than other destinations.
This year, visitors are likely to surpass 2019’s record of 31. 9 million, but last year’s tourism spending may have already reached the government’s target of 5 trillion yen ($33. 81 billion), said Teppei Kawanishi, managing director of industry consultancy Honichi Lab.
Average spending per guest is about 30% higher than before the pandemic, driven in part by regular travelers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, Kawanishi said.
“Spending levels are very high nowadays,” he added.
December saw record arrivals for a single month of people from Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, JNTO said.
This is helping to offset the slow recovery in the number of visitors from mainland China, which accounted for about a third of all visitors and 40% of all tourism spending in Japan in 2019. The number of Chinese travelers in December is still 56% lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Inbound tourism has become a key part of Japan’s economic recovery, but a severe shortage of workers is hobbling the sector’s ability to keep up with demand.
“The industry cannot cope,” said Wanping Aw, general director of the TokudAw agency, which specializes in personal cars in Japan. “Experienced staff are exhausted and overworked and have no time to exercise staff. ” ($1 = 147. 8700 yen) (Reporting via Rocky Swift; editing via Rashmi Aich and Tomasz Janowski)
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