The first 12 months after the tsunami and earthquake affected Japan’s tourism quite considerably. An analysis by Forward Data SL was released just recently giving the details regarding Japan’s tourism.
The first 12 months that followed the destructive crisis had a result of decreasing the tourism to Japan by 29%. The business sector actually appeared more resilient than the general leisure tourists.
The country’s tourism is slowly but surely recovering. Arrivals are growing. When the data of this year is compared to 2011 when the tragedy happened, the numbers did improve. However, it is still not enough to go over the numbers recorded in 2010. Currently Japan’s tourism numbers are 13% below 2010.
The data clearly shows that the most decreasing segment is leisure tourism. This is not surprising since business travelers are the bulk of the head count of tourists who arrived in Japan in the previous years.
There is also data regarding source regions. A growth patterns has been established by Forward Data SL. There was a 50 % decrease in the number of tourists coming from North America when compared to 2010 figures. On the other hand, there is a 4% increase on Central South America and Africa when compared to 2010 figures as well.
These data leaves the country very hopeful. They know they will get back on the tourism charts thanks to their ability to attract people all over the world.
There are top 5 source countries that represented up to 61% of the people who arrived in Japan this year – 43 per cent from the USA, 7 per cent from Germany, another 7 per cent from the United Kingdom, 6 per cent from Australia and lastly 6 per cent from France.
In the next months, last minute bookings are expected to help in making the figures better. However, the progress of this market has still no clear predictions.
The method Forward Data SL used was gathering data based on the Air Reservation Data propriety ForwardKeys as of June 16, 2012. The perimeter of the data includes air reservations made by tourists who are going to Japan from Long Haul Source Markets which is basically all Origin Markets with the exemption of Asia, who stayed between 1 and 21 nights in destination. The data does not include day trips, transits or people who are staying more than 22 nights in the country.
The percentage of tourists arriving in Japan by country is wrong. Most tourists arrive from China, Korea and Taiwan, not from USA!