JNTO says the highest number of visitors was from South Korea at 4.3 million from January to June in 2023
Japan received more than 2 million tourists for the third consecutive month in August, recovering to more than 80 pc of pre-pandemic levels for the first time, according to data from the national tourism agency Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO).
In a press statement, JNTO says that the number of international visitor arrivals, for both business and leisure, was at 2.16 million last month. The top three source markets, South Korea, Taiwan and China, accounted for 569,100, 396,300 and 364,100 visitor arrivals in the month of August 2023 respectively.
Compared to August 2022, the three markets have recorded growth rates of 1896 pc, 7815 pc and 2853 pc respectively, pointing towards an accelerated recovery in the months ahead. Overall, with 2.156 million visitors in August, Japan saw a growth of 1170 pc in tourist arrivals in August 2023, as compared to the same month last year.
The national tourism promotion body says that visitor arrivals improved to 85.6 pc of the levels seen in 2019, before the outbreak of Covid-19 led to travel curbs around the world.
JNTO says the highest number of visitors was from South Korea at 4.3 million from January to June in 2023, marginally below 4.7 million in the same period 2019. It is followed by Taiwan at 2.6 million arrivals in 2023 against 3.4 million in the same period in 2019. Chinese visitors were third in the list, at 1.3 million in H1 2023, though still a far cry from the 6.6 million received in the same period in 2019.
Hong Kong and Thailand were respectively fourth and fifth in terms of visitor arrivals in H1 2023. Indian visitor arrivals were 105,300 in H1 2023 against 119,470 in the same period in 2019.
