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Foreign guests in Japan surge after tourism reopening

TOKYO, Japan: After Japan ended among the world’s strictest border controls and restrictions attributable to COVID, the variety of overseas guests to the nation rose to almost 500,000 in October, the primary month it totally reopened to abroad guests.

The variety of overseas guests, for each tourism and enterprise, rose to 498,600 in October, greater than double September’s 206,500 and surging an enormous 2,155 p.c from the yr earlier than, the Japan National Tourism Organization mentioned, although it was down 80 p.c in comparison with 2019.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has mentioned the federal government goals to draw 5 trillion yen in annual vacationer spending, however which may be a bridge too far for a sector that withered through the pandemic. According to authorities information, lodge employment fell 22 p.c between 2019 and 2021 and repair staff who discovered different jobs could also be arduous to lure again.

Major positive factors shall be troublesome till Chinese vacationers return. A report 9.5 million Chinese got here to Japan in 2019, about one-third of all guests, however with COVID-19 spreading in China, its tradition and tourism ministry mentioned this week that cross-border group journey was nonetheless suspended.
Other developments are extra encouraging.

Inbound searches for accommodations on the web bookings website Agoda shot up almost 16-fold between January and October, primarily by clients in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, mentioned Hiroto Ooka, the corporate’s Japan-based head of North Asia.

“We are seeing the weak yen in a positive way,” he mentioned. “Many searches are coming in, and I think partially the yen being weak is the reason for that,” he mentioned, as quoted by Reuters.

Japan additionally introduced that it was reopening its ports to cruise ships starting in March 2023, with some 166 ships slated to go to subsequent yr, in line with trade group Japan International Cruise Committee.

“We look forward to welcoming all our guests, on board and in port, in the future,” he mentioned.

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