Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) reported that the number of international visitors to Japan in November 2019 was down 0.4% year on year to 2,441,300. JNTO explained that a major reason for the year-on-year reduction for tow months in a row was continuously a 65.1% decrease in visitors from South Korea.
Except South Korea, however, visitors from 19 major markets were up 19.9% to 2,336,300, marking record-high results in all of the markets. Visitors from China, the largest market, were up 21.7% to 750,900, which accounted for about 30% of the total. The Southeast Asian market also grew with a 36.3% increase from Thailand, a 38% increase from Philippines, a 20.3% increase from Singapore and a 17.1% increase from Malaysia.
World Cup Rugby 2019 boosted the Australia market with a 21.2% increase and the U.K. market with a 37.5% increase. Visitors from U.S. also increased by 17.3% partially boosted by steady growth of cruise travelers.
The total number of international visitors to Japan for the first 11 months reached 29,355,700 (+2.8%).
