Japan Tourism Recovering A Year After Disaster

Above, Asakusa's five-storied pagoda. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

With the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake coming this Sunday, articles on Japan tourism have been ratcheted up.

One such article comes from the Salt Lake Tribune. They start the article with:

NEW YORK • A year after a tsunami and earthquake devastated parts of Japan, officials say tourism to Tokyo and other areas unaffected by the disaster is on track to recover to pre-tsunami levels, with business travel leading the way.

In a conference call Thursday night, Shuichi Kameyama, director of the International Tourism Promotion Division at Japan Tourism Agency, said the number of visitors to Japan in 2011 was 6.2 million, down nearly 30 percent from the 8.6 million who visited in 2010.

Then the article moves into more optimistic territory:

But arrivals have been picking up, with a surge in January due to Lunar New Year, and more tourists expected this spring for cherry blossom season and later in the year for summer festivals.

Kameyama said foreign visitor arrivals in January 2012 were only 4 percent below January 2011, before the March 11 disaster.

The article is one of the few I've seen over the months to recognize that a part of the tourism problem lies with the exchange rate between the dollar and yen. This has been a topic I've been hitting on for the past couple of years.

They note:

While bargains and promotions have helped lure some travelers back, others have been discouraged by the strong yen, which makes travel for foreigners expensive.

To read the full article, go here.