Chinese visitor numbers up on year and down on month in November
The number of visitor arrivals from China fell in November on month, but increased on year, as a dispute between China and Japan broke out and remained unresolved.
A total of 562,600 Chinese visitors traveled to Japan in November, the latest data from the Japan National Tourism Organization showed on Wednesday. That’s a 3% increase year-on-year and a 21.4% decrease from the previous month.
The monthly statistics were the first to be released since China warned its citizens on Nov. 14 not to travel to Japan following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments that Japan could intervene militarily if China uses force against Taiwan.
Some Chinese airlines have moved to cut Japan-bound flights and offer full refunds or free changes for flights to Japan purchased before Dec. 5 and with a departure date through March 28.
“Even so, the number of inbound visitors exceeded the level of the same month a year earlier, partly because the number of airline seats had increased compared with the start of the previous winter schedule period,” the tourism organization noted in its report on Wednesday.
Japanese businesses had mixed views about fewer visitors from China, according to a Teikoku Databank survey of 1,197 companies conducted between Dec. 5 and 9.
China’s Japan travel warning was seen as having a negative impact on the Japanese economy by 42.8% of companies surveyed, while 40.8% say there was no impact. In the survey, 5.6% said there had been a positive impact.
Looking out six months, 36.4% of the companies expected a negative impact and 35.8% expected no impact, while those expecting a positive impact rose to 11.1%.
Transport and warehousing businesses stood out as having the highest share reporting a negative impact, while real estate is the most notable in terms of expecting a negative impact going forward.
According to JNTO, the number of visitors from Hong Kong fell 8.6% year-on-year in November as the local government issued a warning similar to Beijing’s.
