Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) has forecasted that the number of tourists to Okinawa will increase by 44.3% year on year to 8.22 million in 2023, which were 19.1% down compared to 2019.
Out of the total, domestic tourists are expected to reduce by 0.3% to 7.21 million compared to 2019. OCVB foresees that demand will continue growing for the rest of 2023, and also the hotel price, particularly resort hotels’ prices, will largely exceed the pre-pandemic level.
International arrivals in Okinawa are expected to reduce 65.5% to 1.02 million compared to 2019, which are still less than half of the 2019 result. OCVB, however, sees that international visitors on flights will finally recover to around 50% of the pre-pandemic level because of growth of bookings on flights from Taipei, Seoul and Hong Kong and restart of Singapore flights in late November this year.
Cruises stopping by Naha Port have recovered since the restart of operations in March this year. By December this year, a total of 94 cruises from Taiwan and Hong Kong will call at Naha Port. In 2024, Fly & Cruise based on Naha and small-sized luxury ships for remote islands in addition to regular cruises will be scheduled, according to OCVB.
