Japan : Tourism in July

The number of foreigners entering the territory in July Japanese remained below 36.1% in the same month a year earlier, because of the consequences of the earthquake of March 11, the nuclear accident in Fukushima and the yen price even if a recovery is taking shape since June. According to statistics released Thursday by the Japanese Organization Tourism Organization (JNTO), some 561,700 people have visited Japan last month, including business travelers, against 878,582 in July last year. However, this is the largest number in one month since February, before the earthquake and the giant tsunami that devastated the northeast of the country and led to a series of damage accompanied by radioactive releases at the Fukushima nuclear power plant Daiichi. In March, April and May, the number of visits fell in proportions of more than half, almost unprecedented. In April, less than 300,000 foreigners had traveled to Japan. He had to go back to 1991 to find a single spring months as disastrous.Since late May, a slow revival began, but concerns remain very high for safety, according to the body.
The recent discovery of beef contaminated with radioactive cesium has heightened concerns vis-à-vis food, he further stressed. Moreover, the high price history of the yen vis-à-vis the dollar and to a lesser extent against the euro makes it more expensive stays in Japan. Popular forms of vacations offered to the Chinese have also been suspended since the disaster. The South Koreans, traditionally the most likely to visit the Japanese, were only 140,100 coming in July, down 40.7% year on year. Some 87,100 travelers from mainland China at the same time Japanese crossed the border, down 47.2% during that same month of 2010, which has demoted behind Taiwan (113,500, -25.8%).

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The other most severe declines concern Canadians (-44.7% 8,000 visits), French (-43.8% 9,100 visits), Hong Kong (-41.2%, 40,500 visits) and the Russians (-41.2% 2,900 visits).