Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) reported that the number of international visitors to Japan in 2019 was up 2.2% year on year to record-high 31,882,100. Visitors from 19 major markets, except South Korea, broke the previous records.
While visitors from China were up 14.5% to 9,594,300, those from South Korea were down 25.9% or about 2 million to 5,584,600. The Rugby World Cup 2019 boosted the U.S., Europe and Australia markets, and the growth rate of visitors from U.K. particularly was 80% in September and October and reached 27% through 2019.
The Southeast Asia market was also boosted especially by extension of the LCC network, and a 20% or higher increase a year was found in Philippines (+21.7%) and Vietnam (+27.3%).
In December 2019 only, however, international visitors to Japan were down 4.0% to 2,526,400, marking year-on-year reductions for three months in a row. JNTO explained that it resulted from a 60% decrease in visitors from South Korea.
The graph below illustrates monthly changes of international visitors to Japan in 2019 and visitors by market in December 2019.
The graph below illustrates yearly changes of international visitors to Japan in the last decade.
Japan Tourism Agency announced that travel spending by international visitors in Japan totaled 4,811.3 billion JPY in 2019, 6.5% more spending than 2018. Spending a traveler was up 3.5% to 158,000 JPY, but the growths were found in only eight markets, such as France with a 10.1% increase to 237,648 JPY, U.K. with a 9.3% increase to 241,530 JPY or Thailand with a 5.2% increase to 130,912 JPY.
