Good news for Japan’s tourism scene! It’s bouncing back big time after the pandemic, smashing pre-pandemic records for visitor numbers.
In February 2024, Japan rolled out the welcome mat for a whopping 2.79 million visitors. That’s a record for the month and the highest since COVID-19 crashed the party. The surge in tourists? Well, that was thanks to folks hitting the road for the Chinese New Year break.
The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) spilled the beans on Tuesday (19/3/2024), revealing that the February figure shot up from 2.69 million in January.
According to a report on Rappler on Tuesday (26/3/2024), February’s tourist visits even outpaced those in February 2019 by 7.1 percent. Why? Because this year, the Chinese New Year festivities kicked off in the second month, not the first.
Back in 2019, Japan had welcomed a whopping 31.9 million visitors, setting a record that held until the pandemic threw everything off track.
Like everywhere else, Japan’s tourism took a nosedive during the pandemic, staying grounded for over two years. But after that, with the yen taking a bit of a dive, visiting Japan suddenly became a lot more wallet-friendly.
And get this: the latest transaction data for January showed some seriously fat profits, all thanks to tourists streaming in. Looks like tourism is becoming a real heavyweight in Japan’s economy.
Reports say travelers splashed out over 5 trillion yen in Japan last year, leaving the government’s target in the dust.
JNTO spilled the beans that visitors from 19 out of 23 countries, including South Korea and the United States, broke records in February.
Meanwhile, the big boss over at Agoda spilled some insider info, saying that Japan’s the dream destination for tourists from 12 countries on their platform.
“Japan’s the hot ticket right now. I reckon 2024 will be right up there with 2019, if not a bit higher,” he said.