Japan Tourism Agency announced its latest "guest nights" statistics for Japan in July 2017 (secondary report). Year on year, guest nights increased by 1.2%, reaching a total of 44.85 million nights including 37.43 million Japanese guest nights (-0.5%) and 7.42 million international guest nights (+10.5%). The monthly result for international guest nights in July was a record high.
The preliminary report for August 2017 suggests a double-digit growth for international guests: 54.53 million guest nights (-0.6%) including 47.40 million Japanese guest nights (-2.8%) and 6.79 million international guest nights (+18.5%).
The monthly growth of international guest nights in the countryside was 13.7%, much higher than the 8.5% in the 3 major urban areas including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Aichi, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyogo.
The nationwide occupancy rate was 62.5% in July and 69.1% in August. The number of prefectures with an occupancy rate above 80% was 10 in the case of “city hotels”, 7 in the case of “budget hotels” and 3 in the case of “resort hotels”. The occupancy rate in Osaka remained the highest (84.5%), with 90.7% for city hotels, 95.2% for resort hotels and 85.0% for budget hotels.
International guests stayed 2.58 million nights (+23.4%) in the countryside and 3.92 million nights (+13.7%) in the 3 major urban areas. The growth rate in the countryside, significantly higher than in the 3 major urban areas, suggests a decentralization of the inbound market.
