Japan's March visitors at post-COVID high, lured by cherry blossoms (updated)
19/04/2023 09:03
(Adds details; paragraph 4 onwards)
TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Visitors to Japan surged in
March to their highest after the COVID-19 pandemic, official
data showed on Wednesday, with overseas tourists flocking to see
the nation's famous cherry blossoms for the first time in four
years as travel curbs eased.
The number of foreign visitors for business and leisure
stood at 1.82 million in March, up from 1.48 million in
February, the Japan National Tourism Organisation said.
However, arrivals were still down 34% from March 2019,
before pandemic travel curbs adopted from the following year.
Visitor numbers have risen steadily since Japan resumed
visa-free travel for many countries in October. It halted
pre-arrival COVID tests for travellers from China on April 5 and
is set to scrap all remaining infection controls from May 8.
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In March 2020, as the pandemic started to widen, Japan
placed travel curbs on visitors from China and South Korea, its
two largest inbound markets.
Tourism to Japan all but halted for more than two years
until a gradual reopening starting in June 2022.
Chinese visitors last month more than doubled to 75,700 from
February, the tourism data showed. But that is still a trickle
compared to the record 2019 figure of 9.5 million that accounted
for a third of all visitors.
A full recovery in Chinese tourist numbers is likely to take
time because of a shortage of flights and Beijing's remaining
curbs on the destinations of group tours by citizens.
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(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Kim Coghill and Clarence
Fernandez)
((rocky.swift@thomsonreuters.com;))