170, 000 Indians visited Japan before pandemic
Post the opening of Japan borders for Indian FIT tourists on October 11, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), Delhi office, organized three city seminars in Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai to reunite with the travel and tourism industry stakeholders. These seminars were conducted with the intent to address the increasing demand and create awareness about the new travel regulations to the partners.
The three-city seminar witnessed the presence of 28 travel agents in each city, 3 DMCs from Japan, along with senior delegates from Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. Yusuke Yamamoto, Executive Director, JNTO, Delhi Office, led the delegation.
Yamamoto mentioned that the buzz was already there concerning the timeline of Japan reopening its borders for travelers. After nearly 2 years of shutdown when Japan opens its borders for the India market including access for independent travel, the response has been very positive and huge.
Highlighting the number of arrivals before and after the pandemic, Yamamoto said: “1.7 lakh Indian tourists visited Japan before pandemic considering all market segments together.” But after Japan opened up, the tourist arrivals from India during last month was 6000, he said hoping that that the pace of the recovery will be faster. JNTO has started to work closely with airlines and the DMC’s to draw more Indians and promote Japan as a tourist destination in India.
Talking about trends, Yamamto revealed that Japan is now focused on family and couple segment in India after analyzing the current market preferences. “Indian people prefer to visit major cities in Japan as 90% of the visitors before the pandemic preferred to visit the basic cities like Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, preferably the Golden route,” he informed. However, the latest strategy is to promote far-away spots from the Golden route and letting the tourists explore additional frames like the mountainside and northern & southern part of Japan.
Speaking further, Yamamoto said that before the pandemic, travelers from India were more inclined towards city tours and urban itineraries, whereas the pandemic let the mindset shift towards nature, outdoor and offbeat destinations. Therefore, it is a good scope to serve the rural frames of Japan to the guests and let them indulge in some exclusive experiences with Japanese culture.
In addition, Japan is now also focused on MICE, incentive tour, and corporate travel from India. According to him, MICE travel is expected to draw recovery faster than that of leisure travel in Japan. Therefore, Japan is in discussion with DMCs to influence more incentive tours from India in the coming days.
When asked about how Japan is looking at its priority markets, he revealed that before pandemic, 75% of visitors to Japan were only from East Asia, mainly from China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He opined that this is not good for Japan tourism to totally be dependent on few markets. “We are now focused on the Indian market as India is an emerging market for Japan. So, we encourage Indian tour operators to introduce Japan. We also encourage Japanese agents/operators to focus on Indian customers because the culture of East Asia and Japan are very close and on behavior side as well, but regarding India it is different. And so, we encourage hotels in Japan to serve Indian vegetarian food”.
He informed that the World Expo 2025 is taking place in Osaka, and this will help in accelerating growth in tourist arrivals. Yamamoto believes that Japan expects to reach the pre-pandemic levels by 2025.
Kuhelika Roy Choudhury
