Japan Travel Trade Weekly News
Keeping you abreast of what's going on in the
Japanese travel and tourism industries.
News consolidated by Travel Vision, Inc. updated every week.
JNTO Estimates Outbound Travelers for 2007 at 17.29 Million, Down
1.3%, and Inbound Travelers at 8.35 Million
Mid-February, 2008
Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) released a preliminary
estimate of Japanese outbound travelers for 2007 that indicates a
decline of 1.3 percent from the previous year to 17,298,000, the
fourth highest on record.
The year 2007 made a good start with a 4.8 percent growth in
January, counting 1,407,790 travelers, thanks to the prolonged New
Year holiday, but was followed by sluggish months ever since. High
cost of overseas travel caused by the weak yen rate and slackened
pace of outgoing move by the people under 40 - these are the factors
cited by JNTO for the decline. It also points out that more people
preferred a short-distance journey to a long-haul one.
By destination, visitors to Korea decreased because of an
appreciation of Korean won against Japanese yen and calming down of
Korean boom in Japan. Visitors to Taiwan and Hong Kong showed a
marginal growth over the year before. Travelers to China increased
due to continuation of visa exemption program and widened flight
network and increased frequency.
Among the destinations in Southeast Asia, Viet Nam performed
well, Cambodia advanced slightly, and Malaysia and Indonesia regained
lost ground somewhat, while Philippines dipped after a terrorist
bombing in Manila (October 19, 2007) and Thailand sank in the wake of
a series of terrorist bombing in Bangkok (December 31, 2006).
Foreign visitors to Japan surpassed the eight million mark for
the first time ever and registered 8,349,200, up 13.8 percent from
the previous year. Visitors from the major markets focused in the
Visit Japan Campaign (VJC) program - the United States, Korea,
Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Canada, the
United Kingdom, Germany, and France - constituted 88.3 percent of the
total and 11 countries other than the U.S. recorded all-time highs.
Korea, with 2,600,800 visitors and up 22.8 percent from the
previous year, kept the biggest share of 31.2 percent. Taiwan took
the second biggest share of 16.6 percent with 1,385,200 visitors, up
5.8 percent, while China took an 11.3 percent share with 943,400
visitors, up 16.2 percent.
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