After a three-year struggle during the pandemic, Japan’s tourism industry rebounded in 2023, with the government accelerating the normalization of business and social activities.
A major driving force for the industry was the reopening of the border, which has sparked a renewed influx of international tourists.
In October, Japan saw 2.51 million foreign visitors, exceeding the comparable figure in pre-pandemic 2019 for the first time. The figure was achieved even though the number of Chinese visitors, who had accounted for the largest share in October 2019, was still down about 65%.
Backed by that trend, Japan is set to see an influx of new accommodation offerings in the coming years as both domestic and foreign players ratchet up investments.
France-based Accor, one of the leading international hotel chains, has seen a recovery of guests in Japan mainly due to the return of foreign travelers, with all of its hotels exceeding the 2019 business levels since June last year, said Dean Daniels, the firm’s vice president of operations and the head of Accor’s Japan business.
“What we find exciting … is that that’s without China having a major impact on demand for any region,” he said.
Since Japan was slow to reopen its borders, there seems to be robust pent-up demand to visit the country, which has also been helped by the historically weak yen over the past year, making Japan a more cost effective destination, Daniels said.
Accor believes that Japan will continue to attract more inbound tourists, with the government setting a goal of attracting 60 million foreign visitors annually by 2030. Prior to the pandemic, Japan’s record high was 31.8 million in 2019. Source: Japan times
