TOKYO, Aug 22 (NNN-NHK) – The number of foreign visitors to Japan in July, plummeted by 99.9 percent from a year ago, for the fourth consecutive month, due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, the government said in a report yesterday.
According to estimates by Japan Tourism Agency, only 3,800 foreign travellers came to Japan in July. Among them, the number of visitors from China fell to around 800 from 1.05 million a year earlier.
Meanwhile, there were some 600 visitors from Vietnam, followed by the United States with 400, and 300 travellers each from South Korea and India, the latest data showed.
The figure in July marked the 10th consecutive monthly decline since last Oct, when there was a significant drop in visitors from South Korea, due to souring bilateral ties over the dispute of wartime labour, during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
Currently, Japan imposed a travel ban on 146 countries and regions, in an effort to curb the spread of the pandemic, with foreign tourists who have been to these areas within 14 days of their arrival being denied entry.
Japan welcomed a record high of 31.88 million foreign visitors last year. The government had set a goal of 40 million inbound tourists for 2020, but has seen record falls in numbers.– NNN-NHK
