Japan Sees Tourism Recovery Taking 1-2 Years

Above, the Fukuoka PayPay Dome, formerly known as the Fukuoka Yafuoku! Dome. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Japanese tourism industry doesn't expect a full recovery for at least one to two years.

This may be a good opportunity for tourists (as some people might still be reluctant in traveling to Japan, at least for a while) to get bargains on hotel rooms and even airline tickets.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- Japan's coronavirus-hit tourism sector expects a rebound to take between one to two years after being hit by huge customer losses, a Nikkei survey shows. 

Close to 60% of tourist businesses in Japan are experiencing a fall of more than 80% in their number of customers amid the coronavirus, according to the results of the survey conducted at the end of May. 

Nikkei got answers from 103 tourist-related companies including hotels, transportation services, and other facilities.

To read more, go here.

Japan Set For Deep Recession

Above, the Wako department store at Ginza Crossing. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Things aren't looking too good for the Japanese economy.

The coronavirus pandemic may send Japan into a deep recession.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review:

The declaration of a state of emergency in Japan has prompted economists to slash forecasts for three months from April to June. 

Analysts from domestic and international banks now all expect an annualized double-digit contraction in the second quarter, before the Japanese economy returns to a precrisis level. 

J.P. Morgan Securities forecasts the economy will shrink 17% in the quarter, BNP Paribas Securities sees a fall of 16%, and Dai-ichi Life Research Institute and Meiji Yasuda Research Institute project a contraction of more than 10%. Goldman Sachs is the most bearish, anticipating a 25% decline. 

The partial lockdown looks set to plunge Japan deep into a recession -- technically defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

To read more, go here.

Japan Hotels Slash Prices

Above, the Hotel Sunroute Asakusa in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

If the coronavirus acts like it's common cold and flu cousins, it may greatly subside by spring (which is only a few weeks away).

Hopefully it will, but in the meantime, hotels in Japan are slashing prices for the busy early-spring travel season as occupancy rates have plunged.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported:

As Japan suffers a coronavirus-induced drop in travel, hotel chains are slashing room rates for about 30% of stays during the normally busy early spring season, a Nikkei analysis of online booking sites shows. 

Prices were down on average about 20% on Monday from those offered on Feb. 26 as shown on the Rakuten Travel and Jalan.net online booking sites for 1,087 of the 3,624 stays covered. 

The average discount was deepest for hotel stays in Fukuoka, which dropped 25%, followed by Kyoto at 24%. Prices for many stays in central Kyoto have more than halved in the last five days. 

In Tokyo, where the average price dropped 22%, stays in the foreign-tourist-heavy area of Ueno-Asakusa showed steep declines.

To read more, go here. 

Foreigners May Have To Pay Entry Taxes In Some Japan Locales

Above, visitors may soon have to pay a ¥100 tax to visit Miyajima. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Several years ago, Japan made a concerted effort to increase tourism into the country.

Well, they have and that opened up a "can of worms". So now different local governments are considering additional taxes on tourists to address problems that increased tourism is causing.

Nikkei Asian Review reported:

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Local governments at some of Japan most popular tourist hotspots are considering extra taxes on visitors to protect the environment and help deal with overtourism. 

Hatsukaichi in Hiroshima Prefecture is home to Miyajima, known as one of the three most scenic places in Japan. The city aims to introduce a new tax in spring 2021, while areas in Okinawa are implementing levies of their own. 

Japan has experienced a tourism boom over the past several years, straining the infrastructure of some places popular with overseas visitors. Overcrowded streets, heavier traffic and a shortage of restrooms, along with noise and waste pollution and environmental degradation, risk causing trouble between locals and visitors. The number of overseas visitors is likely to increase with the approach of the 2020 Olympics. 

Hatsukaichi is considering an entry tax of 100 yen ($) for every person coming to Miyajima. It had mulled the same plan in 2008 and 2015, but shelved the idea both times.

¥100 is roughly 92 cents.

To read more, go here. 

Narita Airport Gets Midnight Trains To Tokyo

Above, a Keisei Skyliner train at Narita Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

For those who have a late arrival at Narita Airport will soon be able to take a midnight train into Tokyo. Bus lines will also have later departures.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- Train and bus operators announced on Thursday plans to run more nighttime trips between Narita Airport and nearby Tokyo and Chiba to accommodate travelers taking advantage of the hub's service extension this fall. 

Narita, which now lets aircraft take off and land until 11 p.m., will push this back to midnight in late October. Both travelers and staff will need ways to get to and from the airport at that hour. 

Keisei Electric Railway's Skyliner express train to downtown Tokyo will add an 11:20 p.m. departure from Narita. A new timetable going into effect Oct. 26 will boost the number of daily trips by 40% to 41 in each direction, with about 20 minutes between each. 

The company will expand service on its regular line as well. Trains that had terminated at Keisei Narita Station will continue on to Narita Airport, meaning that the last train to the airport will be almost half an hour later than under the current schedule.

To read more, go here. 

Japan Gets More Than It Bargained For With Tourist Boom

Above, crowds on the Kiyomizu-dera stage in Kyoto. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

For the past several years, Japan has been on a crusade to increase foreign tourism to the country. Foreign visitors have increased to over 20 million a year and growing.

But the increase has been a mixed blessing for Japan.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO/KYOTO -- Yuko Kato, a 50-year-old housewife, was raised in Kyoto and has lived there all her life. Going to the 1,300-year-old Nishiki Market, known as "Kyoto's Kitchen," to buy fish, pickles and seasonings used to be a weekly habit for her, but that has changed over the past five years. 

These days, the traditional retail market, which covers five blocks of narrow laneways lined with shops, is overrun by foreign tourists, many of them eating skewered shrimp and other local delicacies as they stroll, making it difficult for daily shoppers to go about their business. Posters saying "No Eating While Walking" are pasted everywhere, but are largely ignored. 

"Today, I'd rather go to a department store, and only come to Nishiki when I really need to," says Kato. "Now we have so many new shops for tourists serving green-tea-flavored sweets or takoyaki [small balls of deep-fried batter filled with octopus pieces]. ... Kyoto's Nishiki has disappeared." 

While the increased tourism should imply bustling business, it has been the reverse for Nishiki Daimaru, a 60-year-old fish outlet that is one of more than 100 shops in the market. Its owner says 80% of his customers are now foreigners, and as a result sales have declined for the past three to four years. Tourists tend to buy only small amounts of sashimi to eat in a dining area at the back of his store, he says, whereas in the past, locals shopped there for their daily needs. Katsumi Utsu, chief director of the market, says Nishiki is now a "crush of spectators rather than a lively scene of local shoppers."  

The situation at the Nishiki Market, and indeed in Kyoto overall, may be a harbinger of things to come for other cities in Japan. With inbound tourism surging, the country is grappling with the government's plan to develop the industry into a new pillar of the economy even as over-tourism threatens to burden historical sites and infrastructure.

To read more, go here. 

Foreign Visitors To Japan Rises 7.5% In January

Above, a restaurant sign in Osaka's Dotonbori. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

2019 is starting off to be pretty good for the Japanese tourism industry as foreign visitors to Japan in January topped the previous year.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The estimated number of monthly foreign visitors to Japan increased 7.5 percent in January from a year earlier to a record 2,689,400, the Japan Tourism Agency said Wednesday.

To read more, go here. 

Japan Needs To Get A Better Grip On Tourism

Above, the Kachidoki Bridge and the Sumida River in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Like the tides, there's an ebb and flow to tourism, and that goes especially for Japan.

Along with that, while the Japanese travel industry enjoys the increased revenue, there's another (surprising to the government) side of that coin.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

Japan's tourist boom is the source of great joy to hoteliers, restaurateurs and the renters of kimonos -- yours for the day for as little as 3,000 yen ($26). 

But the country as a whole is in two minds about the huge surge of visitors, that has taken even government planners by surprise. While the income is welcome, the overcrowding in tourist hot spots, especially in the ancient capital of Kyoto, is not. 

According to Japan Natural Tourism Organization, the total number of inbound tourists more than tripled over 4 years from 8.4 million in 2013 to 28.7 million in 2017. The government has announced a target of 40 million annual inbound tourists by 2020, the equivalent of around 30% of the Japanese population. 

This is still well short of the potential if France, a well-established tourist destination is any guide. It received 82.6 million inbound tourists in 2016, the equivalent of 120% of its inhabitants. Japan clearly has both long-term opportunities and challenges in tourism.

To read more, go here.

Foreign Visitors To Japan Set New Record In February

Above, the Godzilla slide in Yokosuka at the Kurihama Flower World. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan set a new record for February.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in February soared 23.3 percent from a year earlier to 2,509,300, a record for the month, the Japan Tourism Agency said Tuesday. 

The Chinese New Year, which started in late January last year, began in the middle of February this year, boosting the number of tourists from Asian countries.

To read more, go here. 

App To Help Relieve Crowding Issues At Tokyo Disney

Above, a crowd enjoying a show at Tokyo DisneySea. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When we visited Tokyo DisneySea (part of the Tokyo Disney Resort complex) in 2015, it seemed that at least half the population of Tokyo were also attending. Wait times for rides exceeded 30 minutes on average. We enjoyed the park anyway.

To help alleviate this problem, the resort operator is resorting to an app.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

Tokyo Disney Resort operator Oriental Land will roll out a smartphone app in fiscal 2018 to relieve crowding issues that have frustrated guests at the popular theme park. 

The app will offer a single platform on which customers can buy tickets, book hotel and restaurant reservations, and view park maps with estimated wait times for attractions. It will also be compatible with the smartphone-based e-ticket system introduced Tuesday. 

Another feature, in-park online shopping, should do much to help with the congestion problem. Visitors looking to buy souvenirs and the like tend to crowd stores after the park closes for the day. The app will let guests shop during their time at the park, such as while waiting in line, then pick up their purchases when they leave or have them delivered. 

The app will initially be in Japanese, with Oriental Land to add other language options for international visitors later. It plans to collect and analyze data on users' activities within the park for use in developing new services.

To read more, go here. 

Japan's November Tourist Numbers Rise 27%

Above, the Asahi Beer Hall and the Tokyo Skytree. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Japan's tourist industy is all smiles as November's figures are in.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- Japan took in 27% more foreign visitors in November than a year earlier as budget airlines expanded their reach in Asia, the country's tourism promotion agency said. 

Some 2.37 million visitors arrived during the month, setting a record for November, the Japan National Tourism Organization reported Wednesday. Arrivals from South Korea, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Russia all rose 30% or more, thanks in part to low-cost air carriers adding new routes in Asia and increasing service. 

What's more, the November data points to a pickup in foreign visitors. Arrivals from January to November grew only 19% on the year, totaling 26.16 million.

To read more, go here. 

Japan Reached 20 Million Foreign Visitors

Above, the stage of Kyoto's Kiyomizu-dera. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Japan has again reached the 20 million foreign visitor number this year. The total is mainly due to visitors from Asian countries.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- Japan is welcoming tourists at a faster pace this year, with the number of foreign visitors surpassing 20 million as of Friday, but the influx has also shed light on infrastructure issues in need of attention. 

Japan hit the 20 million threshold 45 days earlier than last year, Akihiro Tamura, commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency, told reporters Wednesday.

To read more, go here. 

Foreign Travelers Staying In Japan Up 8% In 2016

Above, turrets and outer wall of Osaka Castle. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

2016 was a great year for Japan as more foreign tourists stayed in the country than they did the year before.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- The number of foreign visitors to Japan who stayed at least one night grew 8% in 2016 from a year earlier to 70.88 million, according to government data released Tuesday.

To read more, go here. 

Taxi Hailing Apps In Japan and South Korea

Above, a Nihon Kotsu taxi in Roppongi, Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In this day and age, it seems that there's an app for just about everything. Now there's apps for hailing taxis in Japan.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- Nihon Kotsu, a leading taxi operator in Japan, and South Korean information technology company Kakao will make their ride-hailing apps compatible with each other by the end of the year, a partnership that will benefit foreign tourists in each country. 

South Korean visitors to Japan will be able to use Kakao's KakaoTaxi app to get cabs registered with Nihon Kotsu's ride-hailing app. The pickup point, destination and other data for these travelers will be relayed from one app to the other. The data will flow in reverse when Japanese visitors to South Korea use Nihon Kotsu's app.

To read more, go here. 

Record Number of Foreign Tourists Flock To Japan In April

Above, a photo/movie shoot in Asakusa. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

April saw a record number of foreign visitors coming to Japan, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

They reported:

TOKYO -- Foreign visitors to Japan topped 2.57 million in April, the highest total for a single month, The Nikkei learned Thursday. 

The number for April rose 23.9% from a year earlier, due largely to more visitors seeking experience-based tourism, as well as an increase in the number of cruise ships visiting the country. Arrivals for the first four months this year also grew, up 16.4% on the year to 9.11 million.

To read more, go here. 

Making Last Day Sightseeing Easier In Tokyo

Above, Asakusa's Kaminarimon Gate. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

You are on your last day in Japan. There's a few more things you'd like to see before heading home. But you have a ton of luggage that you need to deal with. You certainly don't want to lug it around while sightseeing. What do you do?

Two Japanese companies have a solution, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

They wrote:

TOKYO -- Two companies in Japan have teamed up to make it easier for foreign tourists to squeeze in a few more activities during their final day in the country. 

Airport Transport Service, which operates Airport Limousine buses between Narita Airport and locations in and around Tokyo, and transport company Sagawa Express recently launched same-day luggage delivery to the airport. The new service lets travelers drop off their baggage at selected collection points, saving them the trouble of minding their belongings while making the most of their last day before heading to the airport. 

Their "Premium Hands-Free Package" includes a ride to Narita Airport via the Airport Limousine bus as well as same-day luggage delivery. At 3,600 yen ($31.76), it is about 30% cheaper than purchasing the services separately.  

Tourists can deposit their luggage at Sagawa collection points located at Tokyo Station, Kaminarimon gate in Asakusa or Tokyo Skytree and later collect it at the airport between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

To read more, go here. 

Ginza Six Unveiled

Above, Ginza Six (center, background) under construction in 2014. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The newest shopping complex in Tokyo's Ginza district has been unveiled to the media.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- The new Ginza Six commercial complex was unveiled to the media here Friday, featuring luxury outlets like Christian Dior and Fendi as well as a massive atrium and wide hallways designed to help shoppers relax. 

The center will open to the public Thursday. Built on the site of the former Matsuzakaya Ginza department store, the complex has six floors underground and 13 above ground. J. Front Retailing, Mori Building, Sumitomo Corp. and a real estate company partly owned by France's LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton will be involved in its operation. The majority of brands with a presence there consider it to be their flagship location in Japan.

To read more, go here. 

Newbies To Japan To Be Surveyed

Above, the hot spring resort town of Atami. Photo by Armaand Vaquer.

A new survey will be targeting first-time visitors to Japan to see what interests them the most.

Nikkei Asian Review reported:

TOKYO -- New market research will identify the places, activities and food that appeal to people who have never been to Japan, information vital to meeting the needs of international visitors. 

Similar surveys generally target people who have visited the country before. The new service, from Bluemoon Marketing, will launch in April and aim to show potential demand among foreigners with no prior visits. 

Men and women aged 18-69 will be asked if they are interested in visiting Japan and the cities and tourist attractions they would most want to see.

To read more, go here. 

Japan Using Deregulation To Boost Tourism

Above, the main entrance of Hotel Sunroute Asakusa in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Japan is taking steps in deregulation to boost foreign tourism numbers.

According to Nikkei Asian Review:

TOKYO -- Japan's tourism ministry is set to call for more deregulation to boost the number of foreign tourists to the country. 

The ministry and its Japan Tourism Agency plan to propose bills aimed at ending the dominance of licensed bilingual tour guides and making it easier for hotels and inns to sell package tours, among other things. 

The number of tourists to Japan reached 19.7 million in 2015, and the government has set a new target of 40 million for 2020.

While it sounds well and good that the Japanese government is deregulating things to boost tourism, I have to question the wisdom of this when the country has inadequate numbers of accommodations for visitors even as I type this. The number of available rooms were just fine when tourism was below 10 million annually. They will need to accelerate the construction of more hotels to meet the increased demand, especially since they expect to double the number of visitors in the next four years.

Above, Hotel Asia Center of Japan. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I've noticed during the planning stages of my last two trips to Japan that it became more difficult to find reasonably-priced hotel rooms in Tokyo. This was made necessary as my favorite Tokyo hotel, Asian Center of Japan, was either booked up or part of their facilities were undergoing renovation, thereby cutting the number of available rooms. So I had to look elsewhere.

To read more, go here.

IBM Japan To Scour Internet Chatter To Attract Tourists

Above, a view from the Tokyo Skytree. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To find out what foreigners praise, complain or comment about Japanese tourist attractions, services and anything else about Japan online, a new business is being launched to use the data to attract more foreign tourists.

Nikkei Asian Review reported:

TOKYO -- IBM Japan is launching a new business that will monitor internet chatter to support local municipalities in their efforts to attract more foreign tourists. 

The idea is to read foreign-language postings, collect and analyze the information, and provide feedback that the municipalities can use to make improvements. 

The city of Kushiro in Hokkaido has already signed up for the service. IBM Japan hopes to have around 10 clients by the end of 2017.

 To read more, go here.