Chinese Tourists to Japan Drop 59% for Ninth Consecutive Month

Japan's National Tourism Organization announced on Wednesday the 16th that the number of foreign visitors in August reached 3.0989 million, a 9.6% decrease compared to the same period last year.

According to Kyodo News, the cumulative number of foreign visitors from January to August 2024 totaled 27.6263 million, down 2.7% year-on-year.

The Japan Tourism Agency stated that rising fuel surcharges on airfares have contributed to the decline in visitors. Due to escalating tensions in the Middle East and rising fuel prices, both All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) raised their fuel surcharges for tickets issued in July and August to record highs.

By source country, Chinese visitors to Japan totaled 418,000 in August, a sharp 59.0% drop from the previous year, marking nine consecutive months of decline. This downturn follows remarks on Taiwan made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takagi.

The decline in Chinese tourists has coincided with widespread flight cancellations. Data from flight tracking service DAST shows that in August 2024, all flights were canceled on 18 China-Japan routes, with a total of 1,120 flights from China to Japan canceled—representing a 30.1% cancellation rate.

In July, 12 routes were suspended for the entire month, resulting in 1,195 canceled flights. During the peak cherry blossom season in March, 53 routes were grounded, leading to 2,691 flight cancellations—nearly 50% of scheduled flights.

Takae Kiuchi, a researcher at Nomura Research Institute, estimates that if the sharp decline in Chinese tourists continues for a full year, Japan could lose approximately 2.2 trillion yen in tourism revenue, dragging down GDP growth by 0.36 percentage points.