Who does not want to go to Japan? Everybody wants! (Image via: Traveller.com.au)

1st Half of 2019, Japan Receives over 16 Mil Foreign Visitors

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Social & Life
Travel
Jul 18, 2019
1730
Who does not want to go to the Land of the Rising Sun? Yes, it is everyone’s dream to go to Japan. Not only food, but the whole population of the world wants a taste of its culture and atmosphere. Even, for those who have been there, they want to experience it more and more.

Now, that might be the reason why Japan, in the first 6 months of 2019, noted the amount of 16.63 million foreign visitors visiting Japan, according to the data by Japan Tourism Agency on Wednesday (17/7). The number went down in 2018 because an M6.1 earthquake struck Osaka.

The number increased 4.6% in the same period last year since Japan has relaxed visa regulations for the Chinese and other nationals, expanded airports, and promoted private lodgings. The spending rate also increased by 8.3% at ¥2.43 trillion ($22 billion).

All those figures above broke Japan’s all-time tourism records. The Government of Japan then set another record to be broken by aiming for 40 million foreign visitors and target spending of ¥8 trillion since Japan is hosting 2 major sports events: The Rugby World Cup on upcoming 20 September – 2 November and the 2020 Japan Summer Olympic and Paralympic which will be held on 24 July – 9 August 2020.

Commissioner of Japan Tourism Agency, Hiroshi Tabata, tabulated that the Chinese ranked the first among the tourists. Eased visa regulations attract the Middle Kingdom. About 4.53 million Chinese visitors entered Japan, up 11.7%.

Their spending is also the highest at ¥895 billion. Followed by Taiwan at ¥298.1 billion and South Korea (S. Korea) at ¥276.2 billion.

However, Tabata regretted that due to the tensions between Japan and S. Korea, the S. Korean visitors' number dropped by 3.8% at 3.86 million visitors, and the number might keep going depending on the sentiments against Japan. S. Korean’s visitor drop was the first in 5 years, while Taiwanese visitors rated the 3rd highest at 2.48 million, down 1%.

Meanwhile, the highest tourist’s increase percentages were shown by Vietnam and Russia at 30.3% and 20.4% respectively. Last month alone, about 2.88 million visitors entered Japan, topping June 2018 figure by 6.5%, with the Chinese dominating the figure at 880,700 visitors. S. Korean visitors marked 611,900 visitors.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-sees-record-number-of-foreign-visitors-in-1st-half-of-2019

Social , Tourism , Travel , Asia , Japan , China , S.Korea , Taiwan , Vietnam , Russia