As inbound tourism from East and Southeast Asia continues to rise, Japan is attempting to direct visitors to places outside Tokyo in order to prevent over-tourism, specifically by appealing to ¡°light repeaters¡± who have visited Japan more than twice.
The popularity of Japan as a travel destination among East and Southeast Asian tourists is very high, with a survey conducted by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showing that in all major markets besides South Korea, people chose Japan as the country they want to visit the most.
The survey, conducted between January and March last year, demonstrated that interest was highest in Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong, with over 60% of respondents picking Japan as their top destination.
Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and China were the other major markets in Asia that had Japan as their top choice.
The number of visitors rose over the past year, with the total number of inbound tourists beginning to surpass pre-pandemic levels around the end of 2023. Looking specifically at South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong ¡ª the top three sources of travelers ¡ª the number of tourists in 2023 reached 104% of what it was in 2019.
Yet visitors tend to stick to Tokyo, and compared with 2019, the recovery of tourism to rural areas remains slow, especially among visitors from East Asia. Many visitors from this region have visited Japan more than once due to its close proximity, and they used to make up a large portion of rural travelers.
As interest in Japan remains high, JNTO is attempting to lure such repeat visitors to rural destinations around the nation by conducting a large-scale campaign targeting markets in East and Southeast Asia.
The campaign has assigned target areas for travelers from specific countries and regions, based on the needs of both the destinations and visitors, as well as travel trends from the first half of 2023.
For instance, Thailand has been assigned the Tohoku region, Singapore has been allocated Okinawa Prefecture and Hong Kong has been assigned the Setouchi and Shikoku area. JNTO is attempting to market these areas by cooperating with online travel agencies such as Trip.com and Expedia on campaigns that encourage visitors to post reviews. At the same time, the organization is engaging media companies and influencers from various countries.
Coverage of destinations around Japan besides major cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto is on the rise, with The New York Times having named the city of Yamaguchi as one of its ¡°52 Places to Go in 2024.¡±
, meanwhile, chose Kobe as one of the best places to visit in Asia this year.
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