Japan banks on ‘golden week’ spending boost as China’s extended national holiday fuels tourism

Japan’s travel and retail sectors are hoping that an eight-day national holiday in China will spur the return of large numbers of Chinese tourists

It marks the first extended national holiday to occur in China since Beijing lifted a pandemic-era ban on tour groups visiting Japan

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An All Nippon Airways employee escorts a Chinese tour group through Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in August. Tourist footfall that month was up 1,000 per cent year on year, according to the Japan Department Stores Association. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:30am, 3 Oct 2023Updated: 10:39pm, 3 Oct 2023

Japan’s travel and retail sectors are anticipating a major windfall from the wave of Chinese tourists arriving for “golden week”, more than three years after the pandemic shut down much of the global travel industry.

China’s golden week national holiday spans eight days this year to October 6, as the country’s National Day, which was on Sunday, overlaps with Mid-Autumn Festival . It also marks the first extended holiday season since Beijing relaxed travel on tour groups going overseas.

Large numbers of inbound Chinese visitors are now expected, although there is recognition in Japan that arrivals and tourist spending will not immediately bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

A record 31 million overseas travellers visited Japan in 2019, including around 9.6 million Chinese, and the government set a target of 40 million arrivals in 2020, when the Tokyo Olympic Games were supposed to be held. The pandemic shattered that hope, however, with a mere 3.17 million arrivals that year and just 245,900 in 2021.

Numbers started to recover last year as restrictions began to be lifted and domestic travel giant JTB Corp now predicts arrivals will recover to more than 21 million in 2023, with 15.2 million already recorded as of the end of August. It is not clear how many of that total will be from China, but the lifting of the ban on tour groups in August is certainly a positive factor, analysts say.

“This is going to have a massive impact,” said Roy Larke, senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and an expert on retailing and consumer behaviour in Japan.

“We expect Chinese tourists to boost the retail sector up to Christmas and the New Year, and then on to the Lunar New Year period next year.”

Tourists travel by subway train to central Tokyo from Narita International Airport last month. Photo: AFP

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