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Asia Minute: Japan’s Tourism Industry Smashing Records

Moyan Brenn / Flickr
Moyan Brenn / Flickr

Tourism is enjoying another strong year in Hawai‘i. The most recent figures show visitor arrivals so far in 2016 are up by more than 2.5 percent from a year ago, while visitor spending is up nearly 4 percent. While the performance is solid, it’s nowhere near what’s going on in Japan. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

 

Japan just blew past its tourism targets...for all of 2016.

Through October, Japan has already hosted 20 million visitors. A record shattering figure for any full year.

To put that into a little context, the overall number of foreign visitors to Japan has doubled in the past three years.

Most of those visitors are coming from Asia. More than five million from China alone. South Korea has sent nearly four million, and more than 3 million have come from Taiwan.

Americans are a smaller group when it comes to travel to Japan, but the numbers this year have topped 900,000 — up more than 20 percent from a year ago.

Reasons for Japan’s tourism boom range from relaxed visa requirements to increased flight routes. Even more visits from cruise ships.

The central government has set its travel sights higher with a goal of 40 million visitors by the year 2020...when Tokyo will host the Olympics.

That would still be less than half the number of annual visitors to France, which remains the planet’s top tourist destination.

The U.N. World Tourism Organization says the industry is having a pretty good year—with an overall increase of 4 percent.

The strongest region: the Asia Pacific—where visitor numbers are growing at more than twice the global average.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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