Foreign visitors on a street in Japan. Photo by AFP
Japan, voted the “world’s most favorite destination” last year by readers of Condé Nast Traveler, continues to struggle in attracting tourists, especially from Hong Kong following a viral manga prediction of a massive earthquake.
The number of travelers from Hong Kong in July dropped by 36.9% year-on-year with just 176,000, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
This marks the third consecutive month of declining tourist numbers from Hong Kong.
The decline followed a prediction of an earthquake on July 5 in “The Future I Saw,” a manga by Japanese artist Ryo Tatsuki, which led to widespread speculation and even the suspension of some regular flights between Japan and Hong Kong.
Despite July passing without incident, with the closest seismic event being an unrelated magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30, tourists have been slow to return, particularly to rural destinations, the South China Morning Post reported.
At a meeting of the Takamatsu Airport Utilization Review Council on Aug. 25, officials reported a significant drop in the number of passengers traveling from Hong Kong to the airport due to the “megaquake” rumors, and those numbers have yet to recover, according to Japanese broadcaster KSB.
Flights that were suspended before July have not been restored.
KSB further reported that arrivals from Hong Kong to Takamatsu Airport fell by 31% in May compared to the previous month, with only 2,865 passengers, and the decline persisted through June and July.
“The quake speculations are definitely having a negative impact on Japan tourism and it will slow the boom temporarily,” said Eric Zhu, an aviation analyst, as reported by Bloomberg.
Despite these challenges, Japan welcomed a record 3.4 million international visitors last month, an increase of 4.4% compared to the previous year.
AloJapan.com