Japan Tourism Is Back: What You Need To Know About Visiting In 2024

30.09.2023 - 05:45 / forbes.com / What You Need

It's been just a year since Japan reopened its borders to international travel after the pandemic. But tourism has rebounded in ways almost no one could have predicted, setting up a potentially record-breaking 2024.

"There was no bigger crisis in Japanese tourism than the pandemic," says Itsuo Okada, a veteran tour guide better known as Samurai Joe.

At 94, Okada has seen it all — World War II, recessions, natural disasters and pandemics. Every time, tourism has returned. But Okada says he was surprised by the speed of the recovery this time. It was as if someone turned on a light switch.

"We're very happy to have visitors back," he says.

Japan's tourism comeback is one of the travel industry's most unexpected stories of 2023. It's remarkable, considering the length of the shutdown and Japan's distance from some of its target international markets, like the United States (it's a 14-hour flight from New York to Tokyo).

But if you're interested in visiting Japan soon, there are a few things you need to know before you go. And there have been some significant changes to Japan in the last few years.

Japan's government didn't immediately close the borders in 2020. Instead, the government initially banned foreign travelers from China's Hubei Province. Over time, it added more countries to the list.

In late December 2020, Japan barred all nonresident foreign nationals, effectively closing the country to international tourism. That paved the way for the surreal, spectatorless Tokyo Olympics, which were held in 2021.

While other countries slowly began to relax their travel restrictions in 2021, Japan didn't full reopen until October 11, 2022. The country didn't lift its vaccine and documentation requirements until late April of this year.

Tourism insiders didn't know what to expect once the country reopened after 22 months of isolation. Japan hadn't experienced a disruption like this in a generation. Would visitors gradually return? Or would there be a surge of tourists?

The numbers tell a remarkable story of recovery. In January, Japan had 1.5 million international arrivals, or about 44% fewer than the same period in 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. But the year-to-year deficit shrank to 33% in April, with 2 million visitors; in August, 2.1 million visitors brought it down to 14%.

Japanese tourism professionals admit they were a bit taken aback by the speed of the recovery. Masaru Watanabe, general manager of the Palace Hotel Tokyo, says bookings at the luxury hotel have gone in a fast and steady upward trajectory since the reopening. If the pace continues, Japan will fully recover by 2024 and is on pace to exceed 2019 levels by the following year, if not sooner.

"Things are picking