Japan is already seeing an increase in inbound travelers since relaxing its COVID-19 border controls last week, but a full recovery would remain elusive until China opens up, the head of the country’s biggest international airport said.
Narita Airport chief executive officer Akihiko Tamura said a jump in overseas arrivals in Japan’s biggest international travel hub was an indication of this broader trend.
International arrivals have ticked up about 10 percentage points to about 30 percent of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels since Japan reinstated visa-free travel to tourists on Tuesday last week, Tamura told reporters, citing airport research.
Photo: AFP
“To return to 2019 levels, it’s not enough just for Japan to open up,” he said. “Of course, China has to change as well or it’s impossible.”
Chinese visitors made up a sizeable portion of Narita’s volume until borders started clamping shut in 2020, Tamura said, adding that Beijing’s continuation of a “zero COVID-19” policy and Japan’s delayed reopening would push back a full recovery in East Asia travel to as late as 2025.
A record 9.5 million Chinese visited Japan in 2019, about one-third of all visitors, the national tourism agency said.
Japan last week threw open its doors to foreign visitors after more than two years of pandemic isolation, and is counting on tourism to help invigorate the economy and reap some benefits from the yen’s slide to a 32-year low.
However, the reverse effect of the weak yen is that it makes overseas travel more expensive for Japanese people, Tamura said.
Pent-up demand might be driving outbound bookings now, but the currency effect might drive domestic consumers to fly on low-cost carriers and stay at cheaper hotels overseas, he said.
Nearly half of Narita’s 260 shops and restaurants remain shuttered and it might take several months for many of them to reopen, due mainly to a staffing crunch, Tamura said.
“The last two to three years have been very damaging,” he said. “Quite a lot of people have left the airport and aviation industry, and the tourism sector nationwide, so it will take some time for them to return.”
About 70km from central Tokyo, or about an hour away via high-speed train, Narita Airport has ceded some ground in recent years to Haneda Airport, which lies much closer to the capital.
To boost business, Tamura said Narita needed to shift from being focused on Japanese consumers to offering a store lineup that serves overseas and transit travelers better.
Longer-term, the airport might need to pull together its three disparate terminals into one, more convenient hub, he added.
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