Japan's tourism industry has been on a strong recovery path since the country completely lifted entry restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of international visitors to Japan in March 2024 exceeded 3 million people/month and tourist spending in the January-March period also reached a record high.
However, at the same time, Japan is facing overload in famous tourist centers and is in need of many synchronous solutions to redistribute the number of foreign tourists to other localities.
The number of international visitors to Japan reached 25.07 million in 2023, about 80% of the 2019 figure, and consumption recovered to 5 trillion yen ($31.7 billion). The total number of overnight foreign visitors also recovered to 114 million, but 72.1% of them were concentrated in the three major metropolitan areas of Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo, up from 62.7% in 2019.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed at the National Tourism Promotion Ministers Meeting on April 17 that it is urgent to accelerate the creation of sustainable tourist areas by balancing the flow of foreign tourists between urban and rural areas. The government has selected 20 locations as “pilot pilot areas” to test measures to cope with the influx of foreign tourists, and the government will subsidize two-thirds of the operating costs, up to a maximum of 80 million yen (over 500,000 USD).
Separation between international and domestic tourists
On June 1, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, began operating “sightseeing express buses” that run directly from Kyoto Station to major tourist destinations on two routes on weekends and holidays: the Kyoto Station-Gojozaka Station Line near Kiyomizu Temple and the Gojozaka-Ginkakuji Line. The fare will be set at 500 yen per adult and 250 yen per child, twice as expensive as the city’s regular buses.
Meanwhile, Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, has made efforts to ease Golden Week congestion by deploying a total of 56 traffic guides and four multilingual volunteers to crowded stations and tourist attractions to assist foreign visitors, reducing chaos at these locations. Also in June, Himeji City Mayor Hideyasu Kiyomoto announced that he would consider raising the entrance fee for international visitors to the World Heritage Site Himeji Castle. Accordingly, international visitors will have to pay about 30 USD/trip, 6 times higher than the 5 USD/trip for domestic visitors.
In addition, to reduce the overtourism situation, more and more local governments are considering imposing accommodation taxes and sightseeing taxes on international tourists. In Hokkaido, following Kutchan town, Niseko town will also impose accommodation taxes of 100-2,000 yen/person/night from November 2024. Atami city, Shizuoka prefecture, will also impose accommodation taxes of 200 yen/person/night from April 2025. From July, Yamanashi prefecture plans to charge a fee of 2,000 yen for the road to the 5th floor of Mount Fuji, and international tourists will also have to pay 4,000 yen for a trip to experience climbing Mount Fuji.
Redistributing international tourist spending
On June 18, the Japanese Government released the 2024 Tourism White Paper, which identifies the key policy as attracting tourists to localities and expanding spending, with the aim of: Improving profitability by increasing the added value of tourist destinations and the tourism industry.
This is due to the uneven distribution of international visitors between tourist centers and other localities. According to the Japan Tourism Agency's survey on foreign visitors' spending trends from April to December 2021, the amount of spending (for all purposes) exceeded 100 billion yen, concentrated in 6 prefectures: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Hokkaido and Chiba, while 23 prefectures only reached less than 10 billion yen. Tokyo was the locality where international visitors spent the most with 1,576 billion yen, while Fukui had the lowest with 1.2 billion yen, a difference of more than 1,300 times. The three major urban areas consisting of 8 prefectures accounted for 80% of total international visitors' spending.
Under the Japanese government's plan, 11 pilot areas have been selected to create high-value-added domestic tourism destinations in rural areas. In order to attract wealthy foreigners who spend more than 1 million yen at their destinations, each area will develop a master plan for accommodation facility development and human resource development and strive to realize it by fiscal 2024.
Yamagata Prefecture has allocated 50 million yen from its fiscal 2024 budget to promote research on tourist demand and create high-value-added domestic tourism destinations, including the “Yamagata Festival: Ramen Prefecture, Soba Kingdom.” Tottori Prefecture is aiming to develop tourism products using business-class airline services.
Pilot development of Chinese version of Instagram app
In anticipation of the expected recovery of Chinese tourists to Japan, a Chinese-language Instagram account called “Tourism Pink Book” has been launched by Ehime and Kagawa Prefectures, allowing Chinese tourists to access local tourism information from within the country. Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura has also been actively involved in tourism promotion activities by singing with Chinese singers, or dressing up as a cyclist and a monk. The development of this application was supported by UNBOT, a digital marketing company in China and a first-tier agency in Japan, with the support of the Japan Prefectural Tourism Association. The company is currently negotiating with more than 50 other prefectures to promote this model.
Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/nhat-ban-giam-qua-tai-du-khach-nuoc-ngoai-387424.html
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