The Japanese government has implemented various regulations for about 2 years and 7 months since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and since October 11 this year, it has allowed 68 countries, including Korea and the United States, to enter without visas. Since June this year, the policy of allowing only group tours has also changed, enabling personal free travel. The measure also abolished the daily limit on the number of inbound travelers, which had been maintained at 50,000 a day. However, the 3rd vaccination certificate must be submitted, and the 2nd vaccination and the non-vaccinated must bring the PCR test negative confirmation received within 72 hours before boarding. If there are no suspected symptoms of COVID-19, PCR tests are not performed on the day of entry.

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, was one of the last Asian developed countries to restrict entry as part of COVID-19 quarantine measures. Japan has the lowest COVID-19-related mortality rate among the world’s rich countries, and the vaccination rate is at the top. The Japanese authorities did not implement mandatory containment measures or mask-wearing policies, but the people cooperated relatively easily with quarantine measures.

However, in accordance with the Japanese government’s visa-free entry policy, the inflow of overseas travelers is expected to increase, which is expected to revitalize the Japanese local economy.

In addition, the Japanese government will support domestic travel costs for Koreans to revive their tourism, and will implement a policy to discount admission fees for theme parks, sports events, and concerts from that day. Through the “National Travel Support” policy, up to 8,000 yen per night for travel, which is a package of transportation and accommodation, up to 5,000 yen per night for reservations, 3,000 yen on weekdays and 1,000 yen on holidays. This is similar to the policies implemented by other countries in that it aims to encourage the consumption of the Japanese people and revitalize the economy.

On the other hand, any country’s depreciation of its currency against the U.S. dollar, that is, a rise in the exchange rate, is advantageous for welcoming foreign tourists and attracting overseas investment. At the same time, import prices have risen, which is also disadvantageous. The yen’s value marked the biggest decline against the dollar this year. Although the recent decline has stopped, it still fell more than 21% compared to the end of last year. As the yen’s value fell the most among major currencies, the Japanese government is emphasizing its intention to boost the economy by utilizing the yen’s weakness. A case in point is attracting foreign tourists.

One of the industries that has recently improved the atmosphere in Japan is department stores. The department store industry suffered a triple whammy of sluggish domestic demand, the spread of online shopping, and the spread of COVID-19. It was a representative recession industry, with sales (4.42 trillion yen) falling to two-thirds last year from 10 years ago.

However, sales of department stores surged recently as Japan resumed visa-free tours to Korea, the United States, and Taiwan. Based on duty-free sales, sales at Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Store increased 5.9 times last month from a year ago. Mitsukoshi Isetan Department Store also increased by 4.9 times. It recovered to 60-70% of monthly sales in 2019 before the spread of COVID-19. About 30% of foreign tourists visit the Gotemba Premium Outlet near Mount Fuji, Japan’s largest outlet store, compared to just before COVID-19. The recovery is not expected as Chinese, who were the largest buyers in the past, failed to come due to strict quarantine control, but most foreign visitors are satisfied with the low price. One Taiwanese customer said, “The price of shoes such as Nike and Fendi is twice as high in Taiwan.” A tourist from Indonesia also welcomed, saying, “I was surprised that the bag of the brand I wanted to buy was about 50,000 yen in Indonesia, but it was sold for 30,000 yen here.”

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 498,600 foreign tourists visited Japan during the month of October this year. It surpassed the 206,500 mark a month ago. In particular, South Korea (122,900) topped the list, beating the United States (53,200). JNTO said, “We are actively promoting the opening of joint advertisements with airlines and travel agencies such as Korea and Taiwan, which were limited to COVID-19, and holding travel fairs.”

MIKE CHOI

ASIA JOURNAL

New promotion video was released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Hwang Hee) and the Korea Tourism Organization (hereafter KTO, President Ahn Young-bae). They once made such strides that the former video campaign “Feel the rhythm of Korea” uploaded on the KTO’s Youtube channel has a total of more than 90 million views, and the combined number of views on TikTok and Instagram is more than 200 million.

The sequel videos to last year’s “Feel the rhythm of Korea” featuring music by LEENALCHI and modern dance by Ambiguous Dance Company were released on September 3. These second clips introduce the traditional and modern charms of ten must-see sites in Korea including Gyeongju & Andong in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Yangyang & Gangneung in Gangwon-do, Daegu, Suncheon in Jeollanam-do, Seosan in Chungcheongnam-do, Busan & Tongyeong in Gyeongsangnam-do, and Seoul, while playing a combination of K-hip hop and folk music. Each clip not only shows the existence of tradition & modern, healing, and cultural heritages, but also sensationally shares the distinctive lifestyle of Koreans.

Korea’s famous hip hop label AOMG and H1ghr Music worked on the soundtracks to create a mixture of K-hip hop and folk music by arranging the refrains of various folk musics.

The songs will be available on Spotify by mid-September.

“It is expected” that Spain will take the second position with some 82 million visitors last year, UNWTO chief Zurab Pololikashvili told reporters, adding however that definitive figures would be published in the spring.

He did not give any details about the United States, nor did he explain why Spain took the second spot despite a terror attack in August and a highly mediatised independence crisis in tourism magnet Catalonia.

(Yonhap)

John Kester, head of tourism trends at the UN agency, added that “everything indicates” that France would retain its top spot in 2017 — a good year for the industry as the number of global tourists leapt seven percent on 2016, the biggest increase in seven years.

Europe was the star of the show as it attracted a large number of visitors, up eight percent from the previous year, lured in particular by the Mediterranean’s sea and sun.

This contrasts sharply with 2016 figures that saw security fears hit visitor arrivals in Europe.

“We do see that demand for European destinations has been very strong,” said Kester.

“We also see important recovery in France,” he added, without giving further details about a country that was hard hit by extremist attacks.

Spain also suffered a deadly jihadist attack in August in Catalonia, the same region whose leaders tried unsuccessfully to break away from Spain, triggering a major crisis that shook Europe.

And while the political crisis sparked a drop in visitor numbers to the northeastern region, it does not appear to have dented overall tourist figures for Spain in 2017.

In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France — despite its own terror woes — easily remained the world leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UNWTO. (AFP)