Japan is leading the recovery of international tourism in Asia-Pacific, with visitor numbers so far in 2024 exceeding pre-pandemic levels, according to Harry Hwang, regional development for Asia and the Pacific at UN Tourism.
Speaking at Tourism Expo Japan, the country’s leading travel event, Hwang pointed to the country’s “record-breaking numbers of international tourist arrivals in the last few months, which is contributing significantly to the country’s economic revival”.
Japan attracted 31 million tourists between July 2023 and June 2024, making Japan the best-performing destination across the region in terms of visitor arrivals compared to 2019, according to the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, a think tank focused on Europe-Asia relations and developments in the Indo-Pacific region.
In July 2024, international arrivals to Japan numbered 3.3 million, 10.1 per cent up on July 2019 and the highest number of inbound tourists per month ever recorded, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. August was also record-breaking, with inbound visitors totalling 2.9 million, 16.4 per cent more than the same month pre-pandemic.
With Japan’s tourism industry successfully navigating the challenges created by the pandemic, “the significance of tourism is more evident than ever,” Hwang continued, noting tourism’s potential to “drive future development and growth” in Japan.
Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai is also likely to act as “a new milestone” in the advancement of tourism in the country, he opined.
