ÀKyoto, local investors are in a position to welcome tourists, but there is still a way to go before returning to the pre-Covid days
After more than two years of near-total isolation, Japan has reopened its borders to foreign visitors; however, the road back to the pre-Covid tourism boom can be long and bumpy.
Last week, the country removed some of the world’s strictest pandemic border controls by removing a limit of 50,000 daily arrivals, reinstating short-term visa waivers, and removing a rule forcing tourists to participate in package tours.
The reopening may have been fast enough for the world’s third-largest economy, which is already recovering from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is pinning his hopes that profligate visitors will take advantage of the weak yen, which recently hit a 32-year low against the dollar, to spice up business and resurrect Japan’s reputation as one of the world’s must-see countries.
In Istanbul, a working-class district of Kyoto, local merchants greeted tourists with a mix of optimism and apprehension.
“The last two years have been difficult,” said Hiroko Inoue, owner of Furouan, a kimono shop. “There were no foreign visitors and very few Japanese tourists. I guess sales were less than 1% of pre-Covid-19 levels.
“When I heard the government’s announcement about reopening Japan, I was glad, but it was too late. “
Just over 500,000 foreign visitors have arrived in Japan so far this year, a fraction of the record 31. 8 million who arrived in 2019, while the pandemic has forced the government to abandon its 40 million visitor target until 2020, the year the Tokyo Olympics were held. Receded. A year ago, when the virus was wreaking havoc around the world.
While television reports filmed travelers arriving at airports and crowding into the working-class districts of Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan is not prepared for a sudden influx of visitors.
Kishida wants to attract five trillion yen (£30 billion) in tourism-generated spending according to the year, but the Nomura Research Institute estimates that the inflow will generate far less than 2. 1 billion yen next year and will not surpass pre-Covid levels until 2025. .
Hotel employment fell 22% between 2019 and 2021, according to government data, and other sectors that rely on tourism say shortages and supply chain disruptions prevent them from coping with a sharp backlog of visitors.
About a portion of the 260 department stores and restaurants in Narita, Japan’s largest foreign airport, remain closed. More than 70 percent of hotels said they didn’t have enough full-time workers in August, up from 27 percent a year earlier, according to market research firm Teikoku Databank.
Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito called the Oct. 11 reopening “a historic day for the tourism sector. “policy, which imposes strict restrictions on outbound travel. About a third of foreign visitors to Japan in 2019 were Chinese.
Until then, tourist yen shops, restaurants and other businesses will have travelers from other parts of Asia, Europe and North America.
People like Ekram Faiz, a Malaysian who visited Gion with a friend. “I bought my price ticket to Japan in 2020, so I’ve been waiting for two years,” said Faiz, who is visiting Japan for the first time and whose itinerary covered the rugged tourist perennials of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. “I can’t wait to revel in Japanese culture, check out the local cuisine. “
The Nishio in-house café, which sells classic Kyoto sweets, has been virtually empty during the pandemic, according to a staff member who asked not to be identified. “It was actually strange,” he said. But our biggest challenge now is to locate enough staff to cope with the growing number of foreign clients. “
Not everyone in Gion is satisfied with the prospect of hordes of tourists returning to their doorstep. Multilingual symptoms instruct visitors to lie in the street in case they block traffic and to avoid touching or photographing personal items. Others remind them of the classic technique Maiko and geiko artists for selfies: a main challenge before the pandemic.
Travelers to Japan will now need to show evidence that they received 3 Covid-19 vaccines or roll back a negative verification result within 72 hours prior to departure. another pandemic measure that Japan is reluctant to abandon: mask cover-up.
The government has advised that the use of face coverings outdoors is no longer required, but the recommendation has been largely ignored. Earlier this month, the government passed a regulatory amendment to allow hoteliers to turn away visitors who refuse to comply with mask wearing and infection control. measures any long-term Covid-19 outbreaks.
A store clerk in Gion warned that maskless tourists would take advantage of the doubt. “I would prefer them to wear masks, but if they come here to spend money, it would be embarrassing if we insist they wear them,” he said. .
That probably wouldn’t be a challenge for Andre Hansmann, a German tourist who had been in Japan for less than a day. While he and two friends were maskless as they explored the alleys of Gion, he said he would conform to local customs when he was inside. “We don’t have our brains dressed in masks at all. . . we still use them in some stalls in Germany, so it’s not a challenge.
Japan has been heavily criticized for its resolve to impose some of the strictest restrictions in the world. “Excluded” foreign couples were forced to live apart, exchange interns had to suspend their plans or abandon their dreams of reading in Japan, and some tourists complained about seeing Japanese citizens freely visiting countries that had already reopened their borders.
“I don’t think border closures have worked as a measure to save you from covid-19,” said Hansmann, who eventually traveled to Japan after his initial booking was canceled because of the pandemic. “As soon as we heard that Japan was going to reopen, we immediately booked another flight. We were so excited when we woke up in Kyoto this morning.
Inoue is eager to return to promoting antique kimonos in his shop, located in a century-old building on Gion’s main thoroughfare. I hope they follow the rules. “