Japan Bound

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.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) Dubai Office Executive Officer, Daisuke Kobayashi, talked how important the Middle East is for Japan to exploit a new luxury travel market. He said, "Middle East is the last blue ocean for Japan."

Local experience booking platform ‘Klook’ has started offering ‘Stay +,’ a package combing accommodation booking with in-destination products such as such as airport railway tickets or theme-park admission tickets.

The number of international visitors in Japan in August 2023 was 2,156,900, recovering to a 14.4% reduction compared to the same month 2019. China lifted the group travel restriction to Japan on August 10 2023, but the effect was limited in August.