JAPAN/US. The number of Japanese visiting the US (including Hawaii and Guam) in August edged up +0.1% to 369,494, though the count between January and August is -3.6% down compared with a year ago at 2,456,880, according to Travel Journal International (TJI) Online.
The travel publication reported that Japanese travellers to the US mainland in August increased by +5.59% to 150,141, thanks to a strong summer season. A figure of 889,068 for the first eight months of 2006 is -2.6% below that of the same period last year, however.
The total number of annual visitors to the US from Japan is expected to grow to 4,996,000 within four years, according to the 2006 Marketing Outlook of International Travellers to the US, produced by the US Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries in conjunction with Global Insight.
That would represent a +29% increase over the five-year span between 2005 and 2010, and would be the highest tally since 2000, when the number was 5,061,377. The record, set in 1997, stands at 5,367,578.
In 2005 there was a +3.64% rise to 3,883,906 – the largest total since 2001.
The report is “based on several variables and assumptions – including growth in world travel, which in turn is based on GDP growth projections, exchange rates and other factors,” said US Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries Director Helen Marano.
The forecast, however, is driven purely by economics and does not take into account non-economic factors that could strongly affect US travel and tourism.
The report added that while Japan represented 63% of the 6,198,000 visitors to the US from Asia in 2005, the share is expected to fall to 47% in 2010, despite an estimated annual growth of +5.2%.
Growth rates for China, India and the Republic of Korea should surpass that of Japan: “India’s growth will total +50% from 2005 to 2010 and visitation from the Republic of Korea will increase +38%,” said the report.
The outbound count from India into the US by 2010 is estimated at 522,000, while that from South Korea will be 973,000. The number for China is predicted to reach 515,000 and for Taiwan 417,000, up +31% from 2005.
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