Tohoku Tourism Down 70% In 2012

Above, Godaido Temple in Matsushima.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While Japan as a whole enjoyed a strong recovery in incoming tourism by foreigners, the northeastern area of Japan is still mired in a post-earthquake depression.


According to the Asahi Shimbun:

Nearly one-fifth fewer people took hotel rooms in northeastern Japan in 2012 than in 2010, although tourism in other areas showed a strong recovery, government figures show. 

The Japan Tourism Agency released data on March 8 showing continued depression in the numbers of overnighters in the six prefectures of the Tohoku region, the part of Japan that was worst hit by the 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, but which also contains large areas that were unaffected. 

Tourism industry officials say Tohoku suffers from perceptions that the entire region is either crippled or contaminated with radioactive fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident. 

"People think of 'Tohoku' prefectures as one and the same. Recovery will be very difficult," said an official at the Japan Travel and Tourism Association.

Much of this perception originated by hysterical news reports from western news media.  The article gives an example of areas totally unaffected by the earthquake, tsunami and radiation that have seen a big drop in tourism.  This is akin to people avoiding all of Southern California if the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Clemente were to suffer the same damage that the Fukushima nuclear plant suffered.

They wrote:

Overall, Fukushima and Akita prefectures saw the largest decline in visitors, respectively at 25.6 percent and 45.6 percent.  Akita Prefecture is on the Sea of Japan coast, not the Pacific side where the tsunami struck.

The number of foreign tourists to the six Tohoku prefectures were down by 70% in 2012 from 2010 numbers.

To read the full article, go here.