Daily Archives: November 23, 2008

Interesting article on Japanese Tourism

Posted on by
1

In my regular check of Japanese News websites, I found a semi-interesting article with interesting stats on tourism in Japanese. As expected, more asians travel to Japan than do Europeans or Americans. However, I was surprised to hear that, in 2007, America beat out Europe in visits to Japan, 12.2% Americans to 10.5% Europeans. I’ve always thought of Europeans as being more avid and fearless explorers since it’s relatively easy for them to travel to another country just by taking a short train ride, which, I think, would increase their interest and desire to explore the rest of the world. Most of the Europeans I’ve talked to either at university, online, or during my travels, have exuded this curiosity in the rest of the world that I don’t see as often in America…Of course, I’m not including economical reasons for these figures, but I was still surprised to hear this. 

“Until recently, the campaign seemed to be working. The number of foreign travelers steadily increased from 5.2 million in 2003 to 8.3 million in 2007. Of the visitors in 2007, South Koreans comprised the biggest group, accounting for 31.2 percent of all inbound travel, followed by Taiwanese (16.6 percent), Chinese (11.3 percent) and Americans (9.8 percent). Altogether, visitors from the rest of Asia made up nearly three quarters of all arrivals, while North Americans accounted for 12.2 percent and Europeans 10.5 percent.” (source: Japan Times,Japan looks beyond tourism’s ‘Golden Route’ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20081123x1.html) 

The article talks about the recent drop in visitors to Japan due to the uncertainty of the economy… I say, if the economy is going to rubbish, why not take a trip to Japan and enjoy it while you still can? ;-)

 

In other news…Thanks to the the American financial crisis, I paid 1.92/gallon for gas last night on the way back from my concert :-)  

 

Daisetsusan National Park

That is Daisetsusan National Park, in Hokkaido… Cally and I would love to go there, but where to stay? Where to stay????? It would also mean we’d have to bring additional winter clothing since the weather can get extremely cold… 

 

4 more days!