Japan Cherry Blossoms attract estimated 63 million people who spend U.S. dollars $2.7 billion

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

An estimated 63 million people travel to and within Japan to experience the Cherry Blossoms and spend about U.S. dollars 2.7 billion as per an analysis from Kansai University. Cherry trees across the country burst into bloom from March to May, painting the country in shades of pink and white. It allures all people national or international. Japan Cherry blossoms add significantly to its economy. A record number of visitors is expected again.

Full bloom reached Tokyo on March 27 and is expected to last until at least this week thanks to a fortuitous return to cooler temperatures that extends the life of the fragile flowers.

Tokyo’s Ueno Park is very popular popular, with an estimated 4 million hanami visitors. Available data shows that most visitors ventured beyond Japan’s three megacities – Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.

Nearly 5 million tourists from all over the world visited Japan in March and April of 2018 as per Japan’s National Tourism Organisation. More than 2 million came from South Korea and China alone.

The Japanese government wants to attract 40 million foreign visitors by 2020 when it hosts the Olympics, up from a record 31.2 million in 2018. The flowering trees, called sakura, are ubiquitous in Japan. They’re so culturally significant that in Japanese, the act of viewing them has its own word: “hanami”.

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