Foreign visitors to Japan increase 17% in first half of 2017

In Kyoto Isetan last week and the most prolific language I can hear is Chinese.....

But spending per visitor declined 6.7 percent to 149,248 yen in April to June, the sixth consecutive quarter of decline, reflecting decreased spending by Chinese tourists 

Rather than or in addition to spending decreasing, what we may be seeing is more low-end tourists coming as the market is being expanded. It might be naive to think that all of the extra tourists Japan is attracting will spend as much as the ones coming already. There are only so many wealthy people out there.

NHK News said yesterday that the biggest spending visitors are from Europe and North America as they tend to stay a lot longer than those from south east Asia.

Rather than or in addition to spending decreasing, what we may be seeing is more low-end tourists coming as the market is being expanded. It might be naive to think that all of the extra tourists Japan is attracting will spend as much as the ones coming already. There are only so many wealthy people out there.

Excellent observation. One would expect the additional visitors to be on average poorer than those who went before.

I have calculated  it and can show that if the 13.76m  "original" visitors' spending stayed constant, then the new 2.39m visitors' spending would have been 49.4% of that of the others.

The reality is probably that both factors are at play.

S Korea, Japan and China is the golden triangle. It has to be far beyond tourism.

I hope that Japan can open up to affordable tourism and not just for the comfy, well off. It really should be seen by as many as possible.

The last thing Kyoto wants to do is go down the same waste pipe (I'm being polite here regarding the 'bottom end' of the market) as, say, Venice did.

If Japan was smart, it would do more to attract more albeit fewer in number but higher spending tourists.

And please no to casinos. Have some imagination.

It has got many of the raw materials but needs to do a little more to attract luxury market.