Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) announced that international visitors to Japan in July 2016 increased by 19.7% year on year to 2,297,000, which were record-high on a single month basis, exceeding the previous record of 2,082,000 in April 2016. The total for the first seven months of 2016 was up 26.7% to 14,010,300.
JNTO said that influences from the Kumamoto Earthquake remained in part of the group travel market, however international travelers to Kyushu had picked up.
The table below shows international visitor results by month:
The biggest international market was continuously China with 731,400 visitors (+26.8%), marking the first over 700,000 a month over all markets. The growth was mainly boosted by a large increase in port calls of cruise ships. The second largest market was Korea with 447,000 (+30%), followed by Taiwan with 397,000 (+9.8%).
The table below shows visitor results by market:
For August 2016, JNTO has forecasted positive trends, such as an increase in cruise ships from East Asia or an increase in seasonal flights, although global political instabilities or the strong yen trend may discourage consumers to travel overseas.
In Japanese
