Japan sees fewer travellers
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Overseas visitors to Japan declined year on year for the third straight month in October, falling 5.9% to 739,100, according to the Japan National Tourist Organisation (JNTO).
Quoting JNTO officials, Kyodo News said it was the longest consecutive drop since the four-month stretch from April to July 2003 during the SARS epidemic. JNTO attributed the latest decline on the global financial crisis and the strong yen. The number of visitors from some countries has fallen by more than 10%, the report said.
The JNTO cast doubt on whether the government’s target of 9.15 million visitors this year could be reached. Aiming to draw 10 million visitors by 2010, the government has been running the Visit Japan campaign and launched the Japan Tourism Agency in October.
Quoting a JNTO survey, Kyodo said visitors from South Korea, the largest group to visit Japan, dropped 15.2% from the previous year to 188,800 in October, largely due to the won’s weakness against the yen. The second-largest drop was from the US. The 68,000 who came to Japan last month represented a 14.3% drop from the year before.
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