Friday, November 18, 2022
To Japan, in October 2022, the number of international visitors have increased to almost 500,000, the first month it completely reopened to visitors from abroad after remaining closed for more than two year, more than doubling the volume from September.
On Oct. 11th, 2022, Japan ended world’s some of the stringent border restrictions, and Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of the country is counting on tourism to renew its affected economy, particularly, against the dollar, the yen hovering near a 32-year low.
For both tourism and business, the number of foreign tourists, in October, increased to 498,600, more than double 206,500 of September and rising a huge 2,155% from the year before, the Japan National Tourism Organization stated this info, though it was still down 80% on 2019.
The 1.52 million foreign visitors in 2022 have arrived. It’s a far cry of 2019’s record 31.8 million and the government’s 2020 goal – attached to the Summer Olympics that were cancelled in the end – of 40 million.
Kishida also said that the government is set to draw 5 trillion yen in terms of annual tourist spending, however that may be an unimaginable dream too far for a sector that shrunken during COVID. In 2019-2021, hotel employment dropped 22%, as per government data, and service workers who found other jobs may be hard to entice them back.
The main gains will likely be tricky until Chinese tourists return.
Tags: international tourists, japan
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