THE Philippines is one of Japan’s top 10 sources of tourists in 2023.
“In 2023, the number of tourists from the Philippines to Japan reached a record high of approximately 620,000,” Japanese Ambassador to Manila Koshikawa Kazuhiko said in his speech during the National Day Reception of Japan Friday.
Based on the provisional data of the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), a total of 622,268 Filipinos visited Japan in 2023.
This exceeded the prepandemic figures on the number of Filipino tourists in 2019, i.e., 613,114 or a growth of 1.49 percent. Compared to 2022 arrivals, this represented a 390.2-percent increase.
The Philippines ranked 7th among the top tourists in Japan. The top 6 tourism markets of Japan in 2023 are: South Korea (6.9 million), Taiwan (4.2 million), China (2.4 million), Hong Kong (2.1 million), USA (2.1 million), and Thailand (995,500).
Among the top 7, only China and the Philippine passport holders are required to secure visas to be able to enter Japan.
The highest number of Filipino tourists was in December 2023, at around 79,100.
Ambassador Koshikawa also noted that in July 2023, Filipinos were the top tourists among Asean visitors. July is the school break for most students the Philippines.
“People-to-people exchange is flourishing. We would like to keep our country attractive to the Filipino people,” Koshikawa
added.
Last month, a total of 56,800 Filipinos visited Japan, surpassing the January 2019 prepandemic record by 57.80 percent.
Aside from revenge travel, most tourists took advantage of the cheap yen in Japan.
Filipinos increased their spending by 2.18 times compared to 2019.
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