Foreign hotel guests in Japan top 10 mil for 1st time in 3 years

This is very good news. With the weak yen, hopefully foreign tourists can come in large numbers giving the tourism industry a boost. They can shop their hearts out too.

It would be nice if Japan could get more of them off the beaten track to spread the wealth as it were.

Not nearly the 40 million inbound we were expecting in 2020. Not even close to the record in 19. But a good step in the right direction.

Foreign hotel guests in Japan top 10 mil for 1st time in 3 years

Current Japanese growth just compare everything during pandemic. Let's compare prior pandemic in 2018 it was 88.5 million foreign guest. So 10 million is less then 12% compared to 2018.

88.5 million international overnights in 2018.

https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/en/kouhou/page01_000326.html

Let's compare prior pandemic in 2018 it was 88.5 million foreign guest. So 10 million is less than 12% compared to 2018.

Perhaps you are comparing “overseas visitors,” which includes arriving foreign residents and transiting passengers, to “overnight stays by foreign guests at hotels and inns.”

Overseas visitors totaled around 31 million in 2018, by the way.

https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/en/kouhou/page01_000326.html

Quoted from your data link …

“The total number of international overnights was 88.59 million.”

One foreign visitor staying seven nights would be equivalent to “seven international overnights.” But that’s still only one visitor.

My advice to those in the inbound tourist business: earn as much money as you can before another pandemic or war breaks out.

Hooray...

But you can't compare 2023 to 2020, 21 and 22.

Current Japanese growth just compare everything during pandemic. Let's compare prior pandemic in 2018 it was 88.5 million foreign guest. So 10 million is less then 12% compared to 2018.

> One foreign visitor staying seven nights would be equivalent to “seven international overnights.” But that’s still only one visitor.

Sorry, we both made the mistake of mixing yearly and monthly numbers. 10 mil is a monthly figure. 88.5 mil is an annual figure.

I knew this would happen once they dropped all the COVID regulations. The big flow of tourists will help countless businesses and the economy. Japan is just late to the party. I just got back from Japan, it is more crowded than I have seen it in several previous trips there.

The Narita Airport will sure reap the rewards of all these INTERNATIONAL visitors paying landing fees, departure fees, fees for Narita services, fees for adding fees, etc. Good job Japan!

My students keep telling me how there are ‘foreigners’ everywhere. One asked. “Is this Japan?” People seem to forget the amount of money these ‘foreigners’ bring in with them and that we’re all foreign when we go abroad.

Lots of nerdy data Kyodo can report while sitting drinking coffee in their office.

For me, the most interesting part is

The cumulative total of overnight stays by foreign and Japanese guests at hotels and inns in April stood at 47.63 million, up 41.6 percent from a year earlier but down 6.1 percent from April 2019.

So hotels as a whole are still 1/16 down. Foreign tourism has almost entirely revived but it has not made up the shortfall for Japanese people getting older and poorer. I suspect the average international tourist will pay more than the average Japanese one, but even so, a sector that is 6.1% down is not going to revitalize the economy as a whole. Such claims can be dismissed out of hand. The Japanese tourists being replaced will also be far more likely to go to far flung places in inaka than an international tourist, leading to overtourism in Kyoto and empty beds elsewhere.

Great news !!..

And the numbers will rising more..

GO JAPAN !!..

The Narita Airport will sure reap the rewards of all these INTERNATIONAL visitors paying landing fees, departure fees, fees for Narita services, fees for adding fees, etc. Good job Japan!

Why the drama??, lol..

Gee, the country was closed for nearly ３ years thanks to corona - coincidence ?

Tourism businesses are celebrating, on the other hand many locals will soon be wishing for more quiet days to come back. Will be interesting to see if Japan resolves some of the overcrowding issues they had before the pandemic...Kyoto locals were complaining a lot before. Still, good for economy overall, sure.

My students keep telling me how there are ‘foreigners’ everywhere. One asked. “Is this Japan?” People seem to forget the amount of money these ‘foreigners’ bring in with

As for Japanese guests, the April figure climbed to 37.24 million,

Nothing compared to amount of money that Japanese spend in Japan.

 we’re all foreign when we go abroad.

But a Japanese isn’t a foreigner when he is in Japan. A Japanese is home in Japan.

Gee, the country was closed for nearly ３ years thanks to corona - coincidence ?

No, a blessing in disguise.

People should study Chinese. Very useful in tourism.

Hotels are booked at around 80% of room capacity, but are missing Chinese tourists, who are be needed to fill the rest of the rooms, according to a couple of staff whom I spoke with last week.

Let's see if tourists drop off once the JR pass price increases.

Won't make a difference. But visitors will mostly just go JR passless and opt to pay the return trip between Tokyo - Kyoto at 38,000 yen or so (saving 12,000 yen). They will then probably spend more time in Kyoto without visiting the regions, which the 25,000 yen pass would have allowed them to do.

Still remember all the detractors saying that Japan's inbound tourism was dead. Well, obviously it's alive, well and kicking. Even the bumbling politicians and bureaucrats can't stop this country from being and incredibly appealing bucket list destination. The real movers and shakers will be cashing in right about now. Hope it grows and grows. Wanna retire with a guest house too one day!

Canada 2.0 is in the making as I predicted.

Foreigners (especially with Chinese and Southeast Asians) will buy all assets within Japan. The prices will drive up to high heavens, and Japanese locals will live in abject poverty like Canadians.

Thanks to Shinzo Abe and his LDP stooges for selling Japan to the highest foreign colonizers!

Thanks to Shinzo Abe and his LDP stooges for selling Japan to the highest foreign colonizers!

No reason to fear harmless tourists, foreign investment in Japan's collapsed steadily as BOJ prints away and buys all assets. Foreign companies or investors not at all interested in BOJ rigged collapsing expensive markets.

Besides, many Japanese and private investment capital busy leaving Japan, that's the core problem.

Foreign hotel guests in Japan top 10 mil for 1st time in 3 years

So..........before the pandemic happened.

Riveting news.

Let me guess, the number of face masks being sold are also the lowest since Jan-Feb 2020?

Cheaper rooms too. Hotel industry competition

I'm not a big fan of this cheap yen we have now....

Its so expensive to travel abroad for us, AND we get lumbered with noisy foreigners.

I guess it's a bit of a seesaw so will shift the other way soon

@njca4

I guess it's a bit of a seesaw so will shift the other way soon

No, the days of Japanese touring the world is gone with the demise of Japan's manufacturing industry. Japan is now the travel destination competing with Thailand, the Philippines, etc.

The more visitors come and go the cost of goods and services in Japan will go up.

Vreth

Let's see if tourists drop off once the JR pass price increases.

I think foreign tourists will definitely drop off buying the JR Pass when the price increases kick in. Price increases of 65 to 77% is an extremely high increase. Usually anything above a 5% increase is a lot.