Thanks to the combination of the borders reopening and the weakened yen, the number of foreign visitors to Japan surged to half a million in October 2022 alone. This is over twenty-two times the amount compared to October the year before. Most visitors were from South Korea, making up 25% of the numbers, while visitors from the United States came in second at 11%. The third biggest group was from Hong Kong at 7%.
However, before COVID-19 in October 2019 alone, there were 2.5 million tourists - a staggering number compared to the norm for the past two and a half years. The Japanese government hopes to recover the number of foreign visitors to pre-COVID levels by 2025. The Japan Tourism Agency, in particular, is focusing on encouraging travel to Japan and increasing the number of flights.
Despite the early surge in numbers, there are many doubts about how soon the tourism sector can return to full strength. Chinese tourists historically made up nearly one-third of all visitors, but due to strict zero-COVID measures, many Chinese citizens are not allowed to travel internationally. There is also the war in Ukraine to consider, which has affected the number of flights to and from Europe due to instability in the region.
We can only wait to see how things will change in the next year.
