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Tourism of Japan Will Fully Recover Already This Year

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has published a report in which the organization is sure in 2012 Japan will full recover its tourism industry, which has been seriously damaged by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

The international tourism demand may get back to its original volume already during the first part of the year. In April 2011 the demand fell 62% down. In 2012 Japan’s tourism sector will contribute ¥10,276 billion (US$129 billion), which is a bit higher than in 2010. 2011 featured the decline of both occupancy and revenues. It was quite large in the first part of the year, but later the situation went better steadily and Japan finished 2011 with the decline of 3.9%.

Japan’s outbound and domestic tourism is also in a good state. The local travellers have quickly gained confidence and even fastened the recovery of the industry. The total number of departures from Japan in 2012 was 2% higher than in 2010. Strong Yen is one of the key factors of such improvement. Domestic travelling is also expected to grow thanks to the trend of short trips – due to the lack of time many Japanese prefer to stay in the country for vacation. Inbound tourism is still below its regular levels though. In 2011 Japan was visited by 28% less international tourists (from 8.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2011). However, the arrivals in January 2012 were just 4% below the level of 2010. Visitors from South Korea remain the number one source market for Japan. China occupies the second place and the number of tourists is growing thanks to the easing of visa requirements.

27.03.2012

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