JAPAN. The Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) has reported that the provisional count of departures from Japan in November 2003 reached 1,275,000, a decline of -8.7%.
Travel Journal International Online said that this is the smallest decline since traffic began falling in March as a result of the Iraq War, followed by the impact of the SARS crisis. It was the ninth consecutive month of lower outbound traffic.
JNTO said the shrinking of the gap in departures was due to stronger demand during the autumn season as travel agencies promoted special packages to take advantage of three-day weekends.
It added, however, that demand for travel to Asia fell behind the pace of a year ago. Furthermore, concerns over terrorism and safety issues contributed to a slower recovery in the month. Industry observers have divided opinions as to the resilience of the Japanese “recovery”, saying any new and concerted outbreak of SARS could have a chronic effect on travel bookings.
In the first 11 months of 2003, the count of Japanese travellers heading abroad reached 11,989,092, down -20.8% compared with the previous year.
Meanwhile, inbound traffic in November continued to grow, this time by +12.7% to 456,000. The count brought to 4,806,033 the number of visitors to Japan between January and November, at -0.80% only slightly down from a year earlier.
