Japan eyes 60m visitors by 2030

Tokyo : Japan is already halfway towards its target of welcoming 60 million tourists by 2030, as the country broke its tourism record in 2024 with an estimated 36 million visitors, according to Hokuto Asano, First Secretary, Embassy of Japan in the United States of America.

According to Asano and his embassy colleague Yukiyoshi Noguchi, much of the explanation behind Japan's popularity lies in visitor curiosity about its Buddhist and Shinto religious traditions, geisha culture, snow sports, and hiking around iconic Mount Fuji, as well as its instagrammable cherry blossom season.

The surge in US and world visitors marks Japan out as a leader in Asia's post-Covid-19 travel recovery-something already noted by UN Tourism's Harry Hwang, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at 2024's national Tourism Expo.

It is also being driven not only by favorable currency exchange rates, but by post-pandemic "revenge travel," with travelers determined to make bucket-list trips, as per reports.

Julia Simpson, President and CEO, World Travel and Tourism Council, pointed out that all this adds to up an economic windfall of almost JPY 44.6 trillion (EUR 278 billion). That represents a 5.7 per cent increase since 2019, in an industry that is said to support six million jobs across the country.