The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)’s statistics for March 2017 finds that Japan received 509,000 visitors from China (+2.2%), 164,500 from Hong Kong (+2.2%), 488,400 from Korea (+30.6%) and 339,900 from Taiwan (+3.5%). Visitors from all of the markets were record-high for March.
The table below shows changes of visitors from the four markets for the last 12 months:
An increase in air capacity including charter flights and tourism promotion campaigns for Kyushu boosted the Korean market, according to JNTO. In China, a large decline in air ticket prices for Europe and U.S. affected the demand for Japan, however cruise travelers continued increasing in March 2017. Shift of the Easter break from late March in 2016 to April 2017 affected the Hong Kong market. Visitors from Taiwan slightly increased year on year, however JNTO said Taiwanese travelers to other Asia has recently increased.
