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By Maki Shiraki and Rocky Swift
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan is already seeing a surge in incoming travelers since it relaxed its COVID-19 border controls last week, but a full recovery will remain elusive until China opens, the director of the country’s largest foreign airport said.
Narita Airport General Manager Akihiko Tamura said an increase in overseas arrivals to Japan’s largest overseas hub was an indication of the broader trend.
International arrivals have risen about 10% to about 30% from pre-pandemic levels since Japan reinstated visa waiver for tourists on Oct. 11, Tamura told Reuters, bringing up the airport’s investigation.
“To return to 2019 levels, it is not enough for Japan to open up,” he said. “Of course, China also has to change, otherwise it is impossible. “
Chinese visitors accounted for a significant portion of Narita’s volume until borders definitively began in 2020, Tamura said, adding that Beijing’s pursuit of a zero-COVID policy and Japan’s delayed reopening will delay the full resumption of East Asia until 2025.
Ahead of this week’s Communist Party Congress, China has pressed its commitment to its zero-COVID strategy, accelerating hopes that Beijing will soon begin adopting a policy that has virtually closed its borders to travel.
According to the national tourism agency, 9. 5 million Chinese visited Japan in 2019, accounting for about one-third of all visitors.
Japan opened its doors abroad last week after more than two years of pandemic lockdown and is counting on tourism to revitalize the economy and take advantage of the yen’s slide to its lowest point in 32 years.
But the opposite effect of the yen’s weakness is that it makes round trips more expensive for the Japanese, Tamura said. in less expensive hotels abroad, he said.
DAMAGE OF THE PANDEMIC
Nearly a portion of Narita’s 260 department stores and restaurants remain closed, and many of them may take several months to reopen, mainly because of shortages, Tamura said.
“The last two or three years have been very damaging,” he said. “Many other people have left the airport and aviation industry as well as the tourism sector across the country, so it will take them some time to return. “
About 70 kilometers from central Tokyo, about an hour of bullet exercise, Narita Airport has lost ground in years to Haneda Airport, much closer to the capital.
To bring the business to life, Tamura said Narita wants to shift from focusing on Japanese consumers to offer a diversity of outlets that better serve and transit travelers. In the long term, the airport will possibly want to consolidate its three different terminals into a more convenient hub, he added.
“If the visitor can spend some time comfortably or fortunately at an airport, they will be more susceptible to spending money,” he said. “So I think that’s a domain where we want to make efforts. “
(Reporting via Rocky Swift; Edited by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)