Investigation contents
Now, this report talks about the investigation contents of the survey and the information obtained from the interview we did.
Current situation and tourism problems
Concerning the decrease in the number of domedtic and inbound tourists
Inbound tourist
The Japanese government smoothly increased the number of inbound tourists through the "Visit Japan Campaign", which started in 2004 and visa relaxation. Especially, it had been a remarkable growth in the 2010s and it was expected to reach forty million before long.
The number of inbound tourists in Japan was about 31.88 million in 2019.(average per month: about 2.66 million)(record high)
Created from "Number of Foreign Visitors to Japan and Japanese Departures by Year (1964-2019)" and "Number of Foreign Visitors to Japan by Nationality/Month (2003-2020)"
In 2019, about 31.88 million inbound tourists visited Japan, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number dropped to about 4 million from January to October 2020. This record is the same as about 4.1 million in 1998.
May was the worst month (as of November 2020) and there were only 1663 visitors to Japan in the same month.
It decreased 99.9% year on year in the same month.
In August, the number recovered to about 8700, but it decreased 99.7% year on year in the same month and remained low.
[International scheduled flights]
Quoted from e-Stat, "Air Transport Statistics Survey"
The impact on the aviation industry has been significant, especially for international scheduled flights. It suffered a bad influence of the COVID-19 earlier than domestic flights. In February, there were 1.33 million passengers, down 26.8% year-on-year in the same month, and in May there were no more than 33,000 passengers. (It decreased 98.3% year on year in the same month)
About consumption of inbound tourists in Japan
Before COVID-19 (in 2019):4,813.5 billion yen (average per person: 159,000 yen)
After COVID-19:impossible to calculate the figure because of the suspention of research (due to COVID-19)
However, according to Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of inbound tourists decreased 99.9% year on year from April to July 2020, so it is thought that consumption of inboud tourists also decreased substantially.
Domestic tourists
The number of domestic tourists was 587.1 million in 2019.
Created from "Survey on Travel and Tourism Consumption Trends" by Japan Tourism Agency
The number of domestic tourists has leveled off since 2010, but it decreased to 213.59 million because of COVID-19.
Although it seemed to improve from July, when "Go To Travel Campaign" was started to September, it decreased 49.4% compared with the same month in the previous year and has remained a low level.
[Domestic scheduled flights]
Quoted from e-Stat, "Air Transport Statistics Survey"
In the aviation industry, domestic scheduled flights in March, the month in which the Tokyo Metropolitan Government issued a request to refrain from going out, had approximately 4.34 million pasengers.
This is a 53.6% decreased compared to the same month of the pervious year, suggesting that the effects of the new corona virus have begun to appear.
In May, under the state of emergency (lifted on May 25), the number of passengers dropped to 600,000.
Compared to the same month of the previous year, the number decreased by 93.4%.
Japanese domestic travel consumption
Before COVID-19 pandemic (2019): Japanese domestic travel cocsumption 21.9 trillion yen
Travel expenditure per an ordinary passenger: approx. 37,400 yen
After COVID-19 (July to september 2020):2,924.1 billion yen
The economy
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects that the world's aviation industry lost 81.6 trillion yen in the second half on 2020.
In addition to this, 190.8 trillion yen is expected to be lost as economic ill effects (2020/10/6).
Deterioraion of employment situation
The total number of employees who are dismissed and suspended by the industry's poor performance brought by COVID-19 (expectation)：71,121 people(2020/11/13)
Especially, non-regular employees are 34,516 (This is the result figured out as from 2020/5/25. It is not breakdowns of the total number of employees.
Dismissal in accommodation industry：8,840 people (2020/11/13)
Hotels' and Japanese-style hotels' bankurptcy for the same reason：66 cases (2020/11/10)
Current problems (For after corona)
Languages
The Japan Tourism Agency researches that inbound tourists had problems with;
Quoted from the Japan Tourism Agency's "Questionnaire on Multilingual Support in Japan for the Development of an Acceptable Environment for Foreign Visitors to Japan"
We must improve these situations for people to be able to go sightseeing without any problems even if different languages. Thus, we have to prevent inbound tourists from losing their precious time and some troubles because of discomminication and incomprehensive signs.