Japan tourist numbers fall for first time in five years
Japan has seen a fall in the number of visitor arrivals for the first time in more than five years.
The Japan National Tourism Organisation said arrivals dipped 5.3% in September.
It was the first year-on-year drop since January 2013 for the country, which will host the ABTA Travel Convention next year.
However, the fall doesn’t come as a surprise as tourism leaders were expecting a drop following the double whammy of a powerful typhoon and earthquake within days of each other earlier this year.
The strongest tropical cyclone in 25 years slammed into Osaka, causing immense flooding and travel chaos for days.
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake then struck Hokkaido in northern Japan, killing 40 people, just a few days later.
It knocked out power to the entire island for several days.
Just prior to these incidents, tourism growth had begun to dip due to a slowdown in the China market.
China makes up nearly a third of all inbound arrivals.
Shinzo Abe’s government has made tourism a key focus and maintains an ambitious target of attracting 40 million tourists by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The country will also host the Rugby World Cup in 2019.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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