Japan: Tourist arrivals rise

TOKYO: The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan this year totalled 23.79 million by the end of October, up 18.3% from a year earlier, the Japan Tourism Agency said yesterday.

The agency attributed the rise to the increased number of low-cost flights, mainly from South Korea and Taiwan, as well as visa relaxations for Chinese and Russian nationals.

By country and region, China accounted for the largest number of visitors at 6.22 million, up 12.9%, followed by South Korea at 5.84 million, up 40.0%, and Taiwan at 3.88 million, up 8.2%.

The number of visitors from Russia grew 40.2% to 63,700.

In October alone, the estimated figure increased 21.5% from a year earlier to 2.60 million, boosted by travelers from China during its long holiday to mark founding day and visitors from South Korea during its harvest festival.

The agency also said the number of dutyfree shops in Japan had risen to 42,791 as of Oct 1, up 5.6% from 40,532 as of April 1.

It also released other survey results on the use of accommodation by foreign visitors, including “minpaku” paid accommodation in private homes.

In the July to September period, 12.4% of foreign visitors used such accommodation, while 75.1% stayed in hotels and 18.2% in traditional Japanese “ryokan” inns. Multiple answers were allowed in the survey.

The visitors using minpaku accommodation mainly came from France, Singapore and Australia.