Japan Bound

The total number of guest nights in April 2023 (provisionally) was up 41.6% year on year to 47.8 million. International guest nights recovered to a 8% reduction to 10.4 million compared to April 2019.

The Japanese government approved a new action plan for inbound travel expansion, which more focuses on ‘business,’ ‘academy’ and ‘culture and arts sports and nature’

Japanticket, an e-ticket provider for restaurants and local experiences to inbound travelers to Japan, is developing luxury gastronomy tours using business jet ‘HondaJet' for rich inbound travelers to Japan.

the number of international visitors in Japan in April 2023 was 1,949,100, boosted by growing demand in a cherry blossom season. The largest source market was still South Korea with 467,000 visitors.

The total number of guest nights in March 2023 (provisionally) was up 48.6% year on year to 49.7 million, which were down just 2.8% even compared to March 2019.

Westjet of Canada began serving three flights a week between Narita and Calgary on May 1 2023. Travel Alberta has a marketing plan to appeal indigenous tourism as well as World Heritages, nature or foods for Japanese travelers.

Google unveiled top 10 most-searched destinations departing from Japan and APAC for this summer. The most-searched destination departing from APAC was Japan.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) drew up major action plans in FY2023 to boost full-recovery of the inbound travel market, positioning Northern Europe (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) as a new focus market.

The number of international visitors in Japan in March 2023 was record-high1,817,500 since the pandemic. Visitors from U.S. (203,000) and Australia (45,200) exceeded the results in March 2019.

Spending in Japan by international travelers for the first quarter of 2023 was estimated at 1.01 trillion JPY. Shopping cost largely reduced from 413.5 billion JPY to 241.7 billion JPY.

Airbnb Japan signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with Kansai Tourism Bureau for home-sharing-based tourism promotions targeting international visitors for Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025.

With a three-jabs vaccination certificate, Chinese travelers entering Japan are no longer required PCR-negative certificate 72 hours before departure, and it will be lifted completely when the legal infection status of COVID-19 is lowered to Level 5 in May.

The Japanese government approved a new three-years basic tourism promotion plan to seek quality of travelers rather than the numerical goal, promoting 'Sustainable tourism,’ ‘Expansion of local spending’ and ‘Encouragement to send inbound travelers to local regions.’

Ethan Lin, Hong Kong-based local experience booking platform ‘Klook’ CEO and Co-founder, recently visited Japan to talk about the current market trend of inbound travel to Japan.

JTB signed a contract with Smart Health Net to develop medical tourism for luxury inbound travelers to provide high-grade comprehensive medical services for inbound travelers.

The number of international visitors in Japan in February 2023 was 1,475,300. Visitors from some source markets, such as Singapore or Middle East, were more than 2019.

The Japanese government has eased temporary entry restrictions from mainland China and has allowed airlines to operate or increase flights from mainland China to local airports since March 1 2023.

Kansai Tourism Bureau signed MOU on strategic partnership with Mastercard to accelerate digital payment in 10 prefectures in the Kansai area toward the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai.

The number of international visitors in Japan in January 2023 was 1,497,300, out of which more than 1 million travelers visited from East Asia. Top source market was South Korea with 565,200 visitors.

Japan Tourism Agency proposed drafts of new Basic Act for Promoting a Tourism-Oriented Country by 2025, focusing on quality improvement rather than an increase in quantity, having three strategy pillars.