It is the first time this figure surpasses 80 million. The increase in foreign lodgers is an obvious result of the government steps in an effort to attract more foreign visitors to the country in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
While the number itself is impressive, the rate of increase slowed slightly compared to the results of the preceeding year. In 2017, the numbers of foreign guests who stayed in hotels and other accommodations in Japan, jumped 14.8% while 2018 showed impressive, yet lower growth of 11.2%.
The main source country for Japanese hoteliers last year was China. It supplied the largest number of overnight guests with the number of the Chinese visitors reaching 20.94 million or over a quarter of the total figure (26.5%). Taiwain was the runner-up with 11.47 million Taiwanese having stayed for at least one night in hotels across Japan, or 14.5%. The third line is occupied by visitors from the South Korea who yielded Taiwan very little with 11.26 million guests (14.2%). Japanese hotels welcomed 5.94 million travellers from Hong Kong who secured themselves the fourth line in the rating. The United States come the last in the top-5 with 5.33 million.
Record Number of Foreign Lodgers Stayed in Japan in 2018
News in Asia
Hotels and other lodging facilities in Japan reported the historical high in numbers of foreign visitors in 2018. According to the data of the Japan Tourism Agency, the estimated number of foreign lodgers in Japan hit a record 88.59 million last year.