Visitors to Japan each from four East Asian countries in a calendar year of 2015 broke the previous records, according to the Japan National Tourism Orgnaization (JNTO)’s report. Visitors from China particularly increased by 107.3% year on year to 4,993,800. Visitors for Korea were also up 45.3% to 4,002,100, exceeding 4 million for the first time and visitors from Taiwan for the first time since 2013.
Visitors from Taiwan were up 29.9% to 3,677,100, which resulted in the first over 3 million a year. The same trend was found in Hong Kong with 1,524,300 visitors to Japan (+64.6%), which resulted in the first 1 million a year, and the annual growth rate was higher than 24.1% in 2014. Visitors from the four markets accounted for 70% of the total.
The following table shows year-on-year changes of visitors from the four East Asia markets in the last decade:
In December 2015, visitors each from China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong reached record-high for December: 347,100 from China (+82.7%), 415,700 from Korea (+53.4%), 265,800 from Taiwan (+25.4%) and 157,400 from Hong Kong (+48.2%). Visitors from Korea outnumbered those from China for the first time since January last year.
The following table shows monthly changes of visitors from the four East Asia markets in 2015:
JNTO analyzed that demand of Korean travelers to Japan has gradually picked up from a downturn after MERS in May 2014, especially boosted by extension of the LCC network. Main reasons for the large growth of visitors from China were extension of the air network, a large increase in cruise ships to Japan, expansion of the duty-free rule in Japan and stable diplomatic relation, JNTO said.
The Taiwan market was boosted by extension of the LCC network and charter flights in the peak season, and weak yen and the promotional campaigns for local areas encouraged FIT from Hong Kong to visit Japan, according to JNTO.
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