Cherry blossom season welcomes visitors to Japan

People enjoy cherry blossoms in Osaka, Japan

Management boards of famous tourist destinations in Japan are rushing to renovate facilities, "renovate" restaurants and public transportation with pink and cherry blossoms, to prepare to welcome international visitors.

E-commerce travel platform KKday said the number of overseas bookings for this year's cherry blossom season, scheduled from March 18 to April 30, is already equivalent to 50% of the 2019 cherry blossom season level before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

KKday Japan CEO Kosei Obuchi is optimistic that when cherry blossoms bloom, the number of bookings will likely be higher than in 2019. Previously, during the Lunar New Year from January 20 to 29 this year, KKday Japan recorded a 250% increase in bookings compared to 2019.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), KKday Japan's recovery in the first month of the year was 180%, higher than the overall market, with the number of foreign visitors to Japan reaching 55.7% of the level of January 2019. South Korea was among the countries and territories with the largest number of visitors to Japan in January, with 565,200 arrivals, followed by Taiwan (China) with 259,300 arrivals and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China) with 151,900 arrivals.

Through the KKday platform, visitors can book an afternoon tea bus tour until the end of March to famous cherry blossom spots in Tokyo, enjoying tea and sweets on a double-decker bus for 90 minutes. Restaurants in Japan are also eager to welcome back foreign tourists, with Australian restaurant chain Bills holding a “cherry blossom viewing” event from March to April 9 at all eight branches in Japan.

Teamlab Planets Tokyo, a contemporary digital art museum in Toyosu, has also seen a surge in foreign visitors since Japan eased border restrictions, with foreign visitors accounting for about 60% of total visitors in the month ending January 9. From March to late April, the museum will transform two of its exhibitions into digital cherry blossom spaces, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in stunning digital artworks.

Japan's tourism industry can only be considered fully recovered when all three markets, domestic, overseas and domestic tourism, return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.

Mr. Obuchi, Director of KKday Japan, said that the country's tourism industry has been strongly impacted and severely damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, but he believes that domestic tourism will revive, while the recovery of Japan's outbound tourism remains stagnant due to many factors such as high airfares and a weak yen.

According to VNA