ID :
675305
Thu, 01/18/2024 - 01:35
Auther :
JIJI
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org/index.php//node/675305
The shortlink copeid

Visitor Spending in Japan Tops 5 T. Yen for 1st Time in 2023

Tokyo, Jan. 17 (Jiji Press)--Spending by foreign visitors to Japan totaled 5,292.3 billion yen in 2023, topping 5 trillion yen for the first time on record, preliminary government data showed Wednesday.

The figure exceeded the previous record of 4.8 trillion yen, marked in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government's target of 5 trillion yen adopted in March last year, according to the data from the Japan Tourism Agency.

The rise stemmed from a rapid recovery in demand for visits to Japan after the government removed COVID-19 border controls at the end of April. The yen's weakness and inflation also helped boost consumption by foreign tourists in value terms.

Separately, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday that the estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2023 increased 6.5-fold from the previous year to 25,066,100, reaching some 80 pct of the record high of 31.88 million, posted in 2019.

In December alone, the number of such visitors stood at 2,734,000, a record high for the month and an 8.2 pct increase from December 2019.

Spending per visitor rose to 212,000 yen in 2023 from 159,000 yen in 2019. Per-visitor spending stood at 73,000 yen for accommodation services, 56,000 yen for shopping and 48,000 yen for food and drinks.

Visitors from Taiwan accounted for 14.7 pct of the total annual expenditures by foreign visitors, the biggest share by region. Mainland China came next at 14.4 pct, followed by South Korea at 14.1 pct. The share was 11.5 pct for the United States and 9.1 pct for Hong Kong.

In 2023, the biggest number of visitors came from South Korea at 6.95 million. Taiwan was second at 4.2 million, followed by mainland China at 2.42 million, Hong Kong at 2.11 million and the United States at 2.04 million. Eight economies, including the United States, logged record-high visitor numbers.

Visitors from mainland China, which had accounted for 30 pct of the total before the pandemic, recovered to only 25 pct of the 2019 figure, as group tours from the country to Japan were banned until August 2023.

The number of outbound Japanese travelers in 2023 grew 3.5-fold from the previous year to 9,624,100. The figure is still less than half of the 2019 level, with the yen's fall boosting travel costs.
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