Japan Bound

Japan and U.S. signed a memorandum of cooperation designating 2024 as the ‘U.S.-Japan Tourism Year’ to strengthen tourism and business exchanges between U.S. and Japan, hoping to return Japan to the number two spot in terms of number of visitors to U.S.

According to Expedia Japan, the most bookings for Japan are seen in U.S. for Q3 of 2023, followed by Australia, Singapore, U.K. Shinjyuku was the top area to stay in eight out of 10 countries and regions.

Digital SENTO(public bathhouse) experience tour for foreign travelers who arrive in Haneda Airport located in Ota area is developed as a Japan’s unique tourism attraction.

The number of international visitors in Japan in October 2023 was up 0.8% to 2,516,500 compared to October 2019 (2,496,568), exceeding the 2019 level for the first time since the pandemic happened.

Guest nights by Japanese travelers and foreigner travelers in September 2023 were respectively up 0.6% to 40.7 million and up 15.4% to 9.5 million compared to the same month of 2019.

81.3% of all respondents decides itineraries in Japan before their departures, regardless of travel days or travel styles. The ratio among FIT is 82.9%, higher than tour (hotel+transportation) travelers.

Nara Prefecture strengthens gastronomy tourism for inbound travelers, offering specially-arranged tours focusing on sake or local foods in Nara.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) survey to participants in ATWS 2023, the biggest challenge is ‘English skill of guides.’ JNTO also said that A key to send travelers to local regions is revival of direct flights from East Asia.

Four-days ‘Tourism Expo Japan 2023 Osaka/Kansai’ was held with a theme of ‘OPEN THE DOOR TO THE FUTURE,’ from October 26 to 29 2023 to showcase the future of diversified tourism industries in Japan after the pandemic.

Spending in Japan by international travelers for the third quarter of 2023 (July to September 2023) was estimated at 1.39 trillion JPY, and the top market was China with 282.7 billion JPY.

The number of international visitors in Japan in September 2023 was 2,184,300, recovering to a 3.9% reduction compared to the same month 2019. The largest source market continued to be South Korea with 570,400 visitors.

The Japanese government approved a policy package for measures against over-tourism with three pillars of manner eduction, more international visitors to local regions and joint tourism promotions with local communities.

Shimanami Japan, a local DMO, has started tourism DX demonstration on its app for rent-a-bicycle users in Shimanami area in order to increase local spending by them.

Air Aisa X will restart serving four flights a week on the Kuala Lumpur- Sapporo route on December 3 2023.Hokkaido is a popular destination for Malaysians.

MOL Cruises announced that the Japanese cruise operator will begin operating a new cruise ship ‘MITSUI OCEAN FUJI’ in December 2024, expecting to attract senior working people or couples in Japan and even inbound travelers as new customers.

Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau will install multi-language generative AI ‘Kotozna laMondoI’ with a capability of more than 20 different languages on its official website.

NAVITIME Japan, a navigation app provider of Japan, revealed which cities in Japan is getting popular among tourists from U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy, based on the search results on ‘Japan Travel by NAVITIME’ app.

Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) has forecasted that the number of tourists to Okinawa will increase by 44.3% year on year to 8.22 million in 2023. International arrivals in Okinawa are expected to reduce 65.5% to 1.02 million compared to 2019.

Japan is selected as top 3 ‘next destination’ in all of the 12 targeted APAC markets except India, according to Klook, an experience booking platform. In contrast, 84% of Japanese respondents select Japan as the next destination.

Passengers using Narita International Airport were up 91% year on year to 3.21 million in August 2023. International flight passengers totaled 2.41 million, 155% more than a year ago or 29% fewer than August in 2019.