Japan Rises for Chinese in Travel Survey

[Aepsilons]

Comment: Excellent news , indeed. Here's to a better 2015!

---------------------------


By Wei Gu



HONG KONG—Japan and the U.S. are set to become even more popular as destinations for Chinese tourists in 2015, according to a new survey, while Hong Kong and Malaysia are expected to lose ground.

Chinese are now more interested in exploring new lifestyles and destinations and are less fixated on shopping, researchers say. Changes in visa rules, as well as airplane accidents in Southeast Asia, have also played roles in shifting travel trends, the survey showed.

The 4,300 respondents to the survey by Travelzoo Asia Pacific were asked to choose their five most-favored destinations from a list of 44. Travelzoo Asia Pacific is a licensee of Travelzoo Inc., a global travel-deal website.

Japan came out on top, with 39.6% of respondents ranking it as one of their top choices this year, up from 29.2% a year earlier. A weak currency has helped, as the yen fell about 10% against the Chinese yuan in 2014.

“As the yen keeps weakening, Chinese are not only going to Japan to shop but also buy properties in some cases,” said Vivian Hong, president for Travelzoo’s China operation.

Japan as a destination has benefited from pent-up demand. Some Chinese travelers avoided Japan in previous years because of heightened political tensions. Easier Japanese visa policies, introduced in 2014, have helped increase demand, Ms. Hong said. And Tokyo is only about three hours away from Beijing or Shanghai by air.

“We want to go to a place that’s fresh and nearby for our team building, so we are now in Japan skiing,” said Guo Yuhong, co-founder of Shanghai-based peer-to-peer lending portal Dianrong.com. He tried skiing for the first time in Hokkaido with his legal team recently.

Changes in visa policies have also made the U.S. a more attractive destination for Chinese travelers. The percentage of people who chose the U.S. as a top destination rose to 31.4% in the new survey from 28.9% in 2014. Starting in November, Washington and Beijing agreed to extend the length of tourist and business visas for each country’s citizens to 10 years from a year.

During China’s Oct. 1 National Day holiday period, trips to Japan booked on Ctrip.com, China’s largest travel-booking portal, jumped 50% from a year earlier. Last year, Ctrip.com sold 30,000 U.S. trips, up 60% from a year earlier, the company said.

A tour guide, center, led a group of Chinese tourists in Kyoto, Japan, in May.

Chinese people are the world’s largest group of outbound travelers. Last year, the total number of trips taken by Chinese outside the mainland surpassed 100 million at the end of November, according to China’s state tourism administration. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Americans took 57 million foreign trips during the first 10 months of 2014.

Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines lost ground in the eyes of Chinese travelers in the new survey. The percentage of people who chose Hong Kong as a top destination dropped to 8.7% in 2015 from 11.9% in 2014, while Malaysia’s percentage fell to 5.8% from 9.9%.


Japan Rises for Chinese in Travel Survey - WSJ

 

[TaiShang]

Japan came out on top, with 39.6% of respondents ranking it as one of their top choices this year, up from 29.2% a year earlier. A weak currency has helped, as the yen fell about 10% against the Chinese yuan in 2014.

A wise and smart choice. Japan offers an amazing travel experience for any type of tourism -- from ecological to spending spree.

 

[applesauce]

A wise and smart choice. Japan offers an amazing travel experience for any type of tourism -- from ecological to spending spree.

yes. while i do not agree with many views of the Japanese government, the people are quite nice and the places are enjoyable to go to

 

[Yizhi]

i actually like the small towns and countryside of japan more, so peaceful and people are warm (japanese standards). metropolis like tokyo is also nice but somehow reminds me of HK, Guangzhou, Shenzhen...or any mega cities in china.
plus yen is cheap now.

 

[Aepsilons]

i actually like the small towns and countryside of japan more, so peaceful and people are warm (japanese standards). metropolis like tokyo is also nice but somehow reminds me of HK, Guangzhou, Shenzhen...or any mega cities in china.
plus yen is cheap now.

In Takayama, Sannomachi Street...

-----------


Rolling fields in Furano, Japan

-----------------------------

Quiet village in Okamoto

....and simple but delicious home cooked food !

 

[IsaacNewton]

I wonder does Japanese tourists like to visit China given the anti Japanese protests.

 

[TaiShang]

Shopping holiday
By Li Qiaoyi in Tokyo Source:Global Times Published: 2015-1-6 22:16:42

Chinese tourists flocking to Japan for deals

A Japanese shopping mall in Shinjuku, Tokyo on Friday Photo: Li Qiaoyi/GT


Around 6:30 pm on New Year's Day, outside Apple Inc's flagship store in Tokyo, about 100 people were lined up to get lucky bags, known as "fukubukuro" in Japan.

These early birds, some of whom were from China, were prepared to stand in line overnight, as the bags were not due to be handed out until 8 am the following morning.

Apple has been observing the Japanese fukubukuro tradition since 2004, and its lucky bags are filled with an assortment of gadgets, usually at a large discount.

This year, the bags were available for a set price of 36,000 yen ($302), before tax, and were available only at Apple's brick-and-mortar retail stores in Japan, prompting fans to brave the chilly overnight temperatures.

Having heard of the fukubukuro mania among Japanese Apple fans, Beijing resident Joyce Zhang arrived in Tokyo on New Year's Eve at the start of a four-day trip to the capital of Japan. She had planned to do some sightseeing, but ended up spending most of her time shopping.

Boost from Chinese spending

It came as a disappointment for Zhang to hear that the unlocked iPhone 6 is currently not available in Japan and would not be included in the lucky bags, so she gave up her plan to join the queue.

Despite not buying the latest-generation iPhone, 28-year-old Zhang, who works for a State-owned enterprise, still spent more than 10,000 yuan ($1,609) during her shopping spree in Japan, picking up a variety of items including a Canon camera and Japanese-made eye drops.

"The weak yen and a wide range of duty-free products for tourists make me want to keep buying," she told the Global Times on Monday, noting that the fukubukuro bags offered by retailers as a celebration of the new year added even more temptation.

The wide acceptance of China UnionPay's bank cards among retailers in Tokyo, which enables transaction settlement in the yuan, is also considered to have increased the shopping mania among Chinese tourists such as Zhang.

Many of the stores in Tokyo offered a 5 percent discount for people paying with UnionPay cards during the New Year holidays.

The young woman was one of many Chinese tourists who have flocked to Japan, partly because the country's recent policy-driven weakening of the yen has made local products cheaper for foreign visitors.

Between January and November 2014, the number of tourists from the Chinese mainland to Japan hit roughly 2.22 million, a surge of 80 percent from the same period of the previous year, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on December 31, citing statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The number of visitors from Taiwan during the same period increased by 27 percent year-on-year to 2.62 million, according to the same report.

Numerous Chinese tourists were seen queuing to pay at midnight on Friday in a drugstore in Shinjuku, one of the biggest shopping hubs in Tokyo.

Holding a shopping basket filled with daily necessities, cosmetics and drugs, a young woman kept snapping up small articles while standing in the queue to pay.

"I'll be flying back to Shanghai tomorrow, and I've got to grasp this last chance to fill my luggage case," said the 30-year-old woman surnamed Lin.

Starting from October 2014, Japan expanded its tax-free shopping range to cover more goods, including food products and cosmetics.

Chinese tourists with long shopping lists will help buttress Japan's economy, the Tokyo-based Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in October, citing Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo.

Tourists from the mainland have shown particularly strong buying power during their trips to Japan. Mainland tourists on average spend about 200,000 yen ($1,678) per person during their visits to Japan, said the results of a survey conducted in July and September by the Japan Tourism Agency.

Many of the customers opting for Japanese-made rice cookers, particularly the higher-end ones costing between 80,000 and 100,000 yen, are from the mainland, said a salesperson at a consumer electronics retailer in Akihabara, an area of Tokyo known for its electronics shops.

On Tuesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference that Japan will extend the validity period of multi-entry visas issued to mainland tourists to five years from the current three years, effective from January 19, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

Kishida also announced the removal of existing rules that the points of entry for mainland tourists holding multiple-entry visas must be Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima or Okinawa.

Outlook still hazy

While Chinese tourists are making a positive contribution to business in Japan, the outlook for the world's third-largest economy still remains hazy, analysts said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has struggled to revive the Japanese economy, which shrank for a second quarter in a row in the three months ending September 2014.

Following a consumption sales tax increase to 8 percent from 5 percent, which took effect in April, the Japanese economy recorded a decline of 1.6 percent on an annualized basis in the July-September period, following a contraction of 7.3 percent in the previous quarter, according to official statistics released in November.

The two consecutive quarters of contraction pushed Japan into a recession, challenging the prime minister's ambitious plans, which have been dubbed "Abenomics" - featuring a combination of aggressive monetary easing, currency devaluation and reform pledges.

"Abenomics has the potential to lead Japan into a stronger trend in nominal and real GDP growth trajectory," Fitch Ratings said in a note e-mailed to the Global Times on Friday.

"However, the Bank of Japan's aggressive easing underscores the challenges the authorities face in getting the economy onto a path of [sustainable] real and nominal GDP growth."

The Japanese economy's slide into recession in the third quarter reflects the impact of the consumption sales tax hike in April, Bloomberg North Asia economist Tom Orlik wrote in a note e-mailed to the Global Times on December 18, a few days before Abe was elected to serve another term as prime minister.

Despite the renewed mandate, the "Abenomics" strategy faces a stern test in the year ahead.

Meanwhile, for Chinese tourists benefiting from the falling yen and expanded range of duty-free items, concerns over the outlook for the Japanese economy do not seem that serious.

"As long as Japan remains an attractive destination for Chinese shoppers, its economy will get a boost," said Zhang after her Tokyo trip, which she said was the most extravagant vacation she has ever had.

 

[AgentOrange]

In Takayama, Sannomachi Street...

View attachment 181788


View attachment 181789


View attachment 181790 View attachment 181791


View attachment 181793
-----------


Rolling fields in Furano, Japan


View attachment 181794

View attachment 181796

-----------------------------

Quiet village in Okamoto

....and simple but delicious home cooked food !

What's that milkshake/yogurt looking drink on the upper right?

I wonder does Japanese tourists like to visit China given the anti Japanese protests.

I hope that Japanese tourists still feel welcome in China. Despite political differences, no innocents on the street should ever have to suffer due to unruly crowds.

The dumbest thing was that during the anti-Japanese protests in China (and to be clear - I fully agreed with the sentiment of the protesters), Chinese people would trash Japanese cars owned by Chinese drivers. I mean, fine, you want to boycott Japanese products but these Chinese people already paid for the car. So the Japanese company already got its money and now you've just ruined some innocent Chinese person's day.

Also, there's no need to harass Japanese students, tourists, and businesspeople already in China. I mean, if they're already in China spending money or visiting for cultural enrichment, they obviously aren't in the same category as Japanese right-wing historical revisionists! It's OK and right to protest the whitewashing of warcrimes by the Japanese government but don't take it out on Japanese people that are most likely to be your allies on the matter (i.e. the ones in China!).

 

[Pangu]

Beautiful place, Takayama, Sannomachi Street looks like a scene out of a Samurai movie. I can just imagine Samurai chasing each other down the street... hehehe. Place like these is the essence of a culture & must be preserved.

 

[terranMarine]

It's also good that Mainland Chinese didn't kill any Japanese unlike some savages down under who went totally nuts to kill Chinese workers over an oil rig. As if that was not enough they jumped on the bodies as freaking monkeys. Compared to that Chinese acted more decently though they shouldn't have burned down Japanese cars owned by Chinese.

 

[AgentOrange]

It's also good that Mainland Chinese didn't kill any Japanese unlike some savages down under who went totally nuts to kill Chinese workers over an oil rig. As if that was not enough they jumped on the bodies as freaking monkeys. Compared to that Chinese acted more decently though they shouldn't have burned down Japanese cars owned by Chinese.

If China couldn't civilize those people in 1000 years, then they'll never be civilized.

 

[terranMarine]

If China couldn't civilize those people in 1000 years, then they'll never be civilized.

a hopeless effort indeed, that's why Chinese people in Vietnam should be worried if tensions rise in SCS.

 

[Aepsilons]

I wonder does Japanese tourists like to visit China given the anti Japanese protests.

China, by far, is the #1 destination site for Japanese tourists. Bar none. The number of tourists to PRC was 2,877,500; to Taiwan it was about 1,421,550 and to Hong Kong SAR its about 1,057,033.

Total number of Japanese who visited 'China' in 2013 was about 5,356, 083.

Japanese tourists aren't known to be "cheap" either.

http://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/reference/tourism_data/pdf/marketingdata_overseas_taravelers140304.pdf

 

[Yizhi]

In Takayama, Sannomachi Street...

this looks like a scene from jp 時代劇...very nice indeed

 

[Aepsilons]

What's that milkshake/yogurt looking drink on the upper right?

We call it ama kaze [甘酒] --- its sweet drink made from fermented rice and it can be served as alcoholic , but there are non-alcoholic forms. Its a simple desert. Its something similar in taste and consistency to Mexican Horchata.

It's also good that Mainland Chinese didn't kill any Japanese unlike some savages down under who went totally nuts to kill Chinese workers over an oil rig. As if that was not enough they jumped on the bodies as freaking monkeys. Compared to that Chinese acted more decently though they shouldn't have burned down Japanese cars owned by Chinese.

Just like how we talk in here in PDF -- we can separate politics from every day life. Same goes for our compatriots. Despite political 'differences', it doesn't affect Japanese Citizens' preference to visit China as our #1 destination spot. Over 5 MILLION visit China , and that number continues to grow. Mind you this is during our 'territorial row'.

Japanese , in general, we are fascinated with China.