Japan Still Trying To Make Tourism Attractive

Above, Tokyo Tower looms in the background. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It is interesting to read articles on recovery efforts of Japan's tourism industry. Most of them focus on the fears of would-be tourists of radiation contamination from the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

I read another one today. This is from Channel NewsAsia.com:

JAPAN: Almost a year after the March 11 disasters struck Japan and hit its tourism sector, authorities are still finding ways to draw tourists back.

Koreans and Singaporeans have consistently ranked among the top 10 inbound tourists to Japan before the March 11 disasters, when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami, which knocked out the cooling systems of the Fukushima plant's reactors.

Almost a year after the disasters hit, fears of a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant still linger in the minds of would-be tourists, making travel to Japan a less attractive option.

That's a concern tourism authorities are trying to tackle.

While concerns over the Fukushima nuclear plant are justified to an extent, most such articles gloss over (or don't even mention) the poor rate of exchange between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar (and other currencies). The article is another that avoids mentioning the foreign exchange situation. Foreign tourists will avoid places where they will receive a poor rate of exchange. To them, it would make a trip to Japan more expensive and less attractive.

Today's U.S. dollar/Japanese yen rate is 1 USD = 77.0337 JPY.* As I've mentioned in past blog posts, I received 116 yen per dollar exchanged in 2007. In December 2010 (my most recent trip to Japan), that deteriorated to around 86 yen per dollar exchanged.

If Japan can get the exchange rates more favorable to potential tourists, that would go a long way to solving their tourism woes. That is another concern that should be tackled.

To read the full article, go here.


*Source: Universal Currency Converter.