Japan’s visitors spend US$39 billion in first nine months of 2024
The country is on pace to break the record of 31.9 million tourist arrivals, which was set in 2019
VISITOR spending in Japan broke an annual record in just nine months, official data showed on Wednesday (Oct 16), demonstrating the economic power of a tourism boom fuelled by the weak yen.
Travellers spent about 5.9 trillion yen (S$51.7 billion) until September, preliminary figures from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showed. This eclipsed the 5.3 trillion yen spent in all of 2023, a record for any 12-month period.
Tourism spending, classified as an export in national accounts, is poised to become Japan’s second-biggest export sector, after cars and ahead of electronic components.
The average visitor spent 223,000 yen on their trip, based on the data from July to September. Italians spent the most, followed by Spaniards and Russians.
There were 2.87 million visitors in September, down slightly from 2.93 million in August, JNTO data showed.
Arrivals have set new monthly records since February, including 3.3 million in July – an all-time high for any month.
Till September, about 26.9 million tourists arrived in Japan, already more than the total for 2023 and on pace to break the record of 31.9 million set in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic shut global borders. REUTERS
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