Japan Travel Insights 2024

Japan saw a major growth on it’s tourism in 2023 and is expected to reach or even beat the 2019 record of 30 millions of international tourists.

1990-2000: Relatively stable tourism numbers, with Japan welcoming around 3 to 4 million international tourists annually.
2000-2010: Moderate growth driven by greater global interest in East Asia. By 2010, annual tourist numbers reached around 8 million.
2010-2019: Exponential growth thanks to factors like visa relaxation, the rise of low-cost carriers, and aggressive tourism marketing campaigns. Tourist arrivals peaked at 32 million in 2019.
2020-2021 (COVID-19 Impact): A drastic drop due to the pandemic. Japan closed borders, and tourist numbers dropped below 4 million in 2020 and 2021.
2022-2023 Recovery: After reopening borders, the tourism industry began to rebound. By 2023, tourist numbers bounced back to around 25 million.
2024 Projections: With strong tourism recovery and renewed interest in international travel, tourist numbers are expected to return to around 30-32 million.

South Korea: Expected to contribute the largest share of tourists, around 5.2 million (16%) of total international arrivals.
China: Close behind South Korea, with around 3.9 million visitors (12%) of tourists.
Taiwan: Accounts for about 3.6 million visitors (11%) of tourist arrivals.
United States: A growing market, contributing with 1.6 million visitors (5%) of total visitors.
Hong Kong: Very similar to the USA, with 1.5 million visitors (4.9%) of tourists share.
Thailand: Thailand accounts for around 700.000 visitors (2%).
Australia: Contributes with around 500.000 tourists (1.5%) of the total share.
Philippines: With 450.000 visitors, the Philippines holds around 1.4% of total tourist arrivals to Japan.
Vietnam: Close to the Philippines, Vietnam sends about 380.000 tourists, representing 1.1% of the share.
Singapore: Very similar to Vietname, Singapore accounts for roughly 330.000 tourists, contributing around 1% of the total of visitors.

Below it’s possible to observe the number of international tourists arrivals up to July of 2024.