
In 2013, a grand total of 10,363,904 foreign tourists visited Japan! That number surpasses the goal of the Visit Japan Campaign, which began in 2003 with a goal to increase the number of overseas visitors to 10 million.
The Japanese language version of popular travel planning and information website TripAdvisor was quite excited by this news, and recently produced their own visual graphic detailing some fun facts about foreign tourists in the Land of the Rising Sun during 2013. Can you guess which country most of the visitors came from, or which country had the highest percentage jump in visitors? How about the most popular tourist destinations for foreigners traveling in Japan? Find out all that and more after the jump.
TripAdvisor drew on statistics provided by the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and numbers from their own website to design the visual graphic. You can view it by scrolling down to the bottom of this page, but first here are all of the highlights in English!
Countries Ranking (2013)
1. South Korea: 2,456,165 visitors
2. Taiwan: 2,210,821 visitors
3. People’s Republic of China: 1,314,432 visitors
4. United States of America: 799,280 visitors
5. Hong Kong: 745,881 visitors
Countries with the Highest Percentage Increase in Visits (2013)
1. Thailand: 74%
2. Hong Kong: 54.9%
3. Vietnam: 53.1%
4. Taiwan: 50.8%
5. Malaysia: 35.6%
The reason for such a large increase in tourists from Thailand? Relaxed visa policies have made it easier to come!
Most Popular Places for Foreign Tourists to Visit (2013)
1. Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima
2. Fushimi Inari-Taisha, Kyoto
3. Todaiji, Nara
4. Itsukushima Shrine (Miyajima), Hiroshima
5. Kinkakuji, Kyoto
Most Popular Hotels among Foreign Tourists (2013)
1. Park Hyatt Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo
2. Kyoto Cuisine and Ryokan Shiraume, Kyoto
3. Hotel Mume, Kyoto
4. Family Inn Saiko, Toshima Ward, Tokyo
5. Four Seasons Hotel at Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
Probability of Returning to Japan (2013)
I’ll definitely come back: 57.8%
I’d like to come back: 34.9%
I might come back: 4.3%
I don’t want to come back: 3%
Finally, the graphic ends with the message, “Let’s aim for 20 million foreign visitors in 2o20!” 20 million people is a lofty goal, but with the 2020 Olympics scheduled for Tokyo, anything is possible!
Sources/Top image: TripAdvisor via NicoNico News and VIPPERnaore
Insert images: Wikipedia 1, 2, 3, 4, Park Hyatt Tokyo







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