Japan Fails To Attract Tourists Despite Reopening After 2 Years

With the hope of retaining tourism, Japan opened its borders to tourists for the first time after two years of hiatus due to covid-19 travel restrictions. Following the covid-19 protocols, the country closed its borders and imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus infection cases. In June, Japan decided to reopen its borders and accept tourists from all across the world. If compared with travellers visiting the nation in June 2019, this year, there’s a fall of a total of 96 per cent.

According to media reports, 1,47,000 tourists arrived in May as compared to a total of 1,20,400 foreign entries. In order to accept more tourists, Japan doubled the entry limit to 20,000 visitors in June. However, the data does not represent any breakdown or kind of visitors and their purpose. This suggests Japan’s tourism is not pipping despite making travel cheaper.

Tourists are formed into groups and they have to strictly abide by the travel rules. It includes mandatory face masks, constant temperature checks, and following the tour order. Tourists are also at the risk of getting thrown out if they are found without masks. All these rules can cause stress to tourists and make them feel self-conscious. Hence, one of the reasons why travellers are avoiding heading to Japan could be the strict rules. These rules are making travelling tedious, thus, failing to attract tourism.

The aforementioned figures also include visitors in April. Despite increasing the number of international arrivals in Japan, the tourism industry is facing issues in retaining the original number of travellers. Japan had also given permission for students, business people, and other workers to enter the country, but all in vain.

Most of Japan's visitors come from Vietnam, China and South Korea. Before the covid-19 pandemic, inbound travellers were all set to break a record in 2019, and the tourism industry in Japan was flourishing then.

At present, Japan is one of the island nations with strict travel restrictions. Due to this, the rich economy of Japan is also suffering.