— Latest update: February 2023 —
With the worldwide spread COVID-19 pandemic, the thriving tourist sector of 2019 (31.88 million tourists) saw an all-time low for about 2.5 years. Even though it is nowhere near this number, Japan is slowly regaining some tourist traction. In December 2022, foreign visitors rose by 1.5 times from the previous month to 1.37 million visitors. Now that the borders seem to have loosened enough, it seems that tourists see Japan as a prime location to visit.
JNTO, Foreign Visitors’ Trends, 2022
Japan Times, Foreign visitors to Japan rise over fifteenfold in 2022, 2023
Although the transaction volumes are still lagging and were down 61% in the first half of 2022, a report from Savills states that it is confident the hotel industry is set to grow going forward. Furthermore the BOJ, who will likely revise its monetary policy, will not have a significant effect on hotel properties which are influenced more by tourism demand than interest rate changes . This consequently, makes the hotel market more appealing to investors, especially because the market is almost sure to see a strong recovery.
Savills, Japan Hospitality - August 2022, 2023
Table of Contents
The EU-Japan Centre currently produces 5 newsletters :