JAPAN. Provisional figures from the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) reveal that outbound Japanese traffic in the first seven months of 2004 is edging closer to the record tally of 2000, according to a Travel Journal International Online report.
JNTO said that the count between January and July reached 9,021,906, down -8.8% from the 9,896,492 posted during the same period in 2000. In 2000, outbound traffic for the year reached a record 17.8 million.
The 2004 tally so far is up +33.5% on January-July 2003 and ahead by +0.9% of 2002 levels.
In July, the number of Japanese heading overseas climbed +49.6% year-on-year to 1,456,000, “fuelled by the start of summer travel for Japanese consumers eager to head abroad due to pent-up demand amid the Iraq War and SARS crisis in 2003,” noted Travel Journal International Online.
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