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UP emerges as premier tourist destination with over 32 crore visitors within 9 months

Uttar Pradesh continues to strengthen its presence on the global tourism stage, achieving noteworthy milestones annually. In 2022, the state welcomed 31.85 crores of tourists, and in the first nine months of 2023, the number increased to over 32 crores, including a significant influx of international visitors. Kashi emerged as the top destination, attracting the highest number of tourists, while Prayagraj and Ayodhya also witnessed the arrival of millions of visitors.

The year 2023 marked a significant chapter for Uttar Pradesh, not only in tourism but across various sectors. The state secured top positions in both central and state welfare schemes, showcasing substantial progress. From January to September 2023, Uttar Pradesh witnessed 31,91,95,206 domestic tourists, and an additional 9,54,866 foreign tourists explored the diverse offerings of the state.

Notably, Varanasi, in particular, witnessed the highest number of tourist arrivals. From January to September, a total of 8,42,04,814 tourists visited Varanasi, with 8,40,71,726 being domestic tourists and 1,33,088 being international tourists.

After Kashi, Prayagraj emerges as the second choice for tourists. A total of 4,49,95,996 tourists visited here from January to September 2023. Among them, the number of domestic tourists was 4,49,93,289, while 2,707 foreign tourists also explored Prayagraj.

Similarly, Ayodhya secured the third position in terms of tourist arrivals. From January 23 to September 23, a total of 2,03,64,347 tourists visited Ayodhya. Among them, the number of domestic tourists was 2,03,62,713, while 1,634 were international tourists.

It’s worth noting that the peak tourist influx to Uttar Pradesh was recorded between January and July, ranging between 5.56 to 5.80 crore visitors.

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32 crore tourists visited UP within 9 months, Kashi most favourite

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• Updated On Mar 5, 2024 at 10:02 PM IST

Assam Tourism unveils Amar Alohi Homestay Scheme to empower communities

The "Amar Aalohi" Homestay Scheme, steered by the Tourism Department, Government of Assam, is designed to propel homestay facilities, carve out self-employment avenues, and offer authentic hospitality encounters to travellers. Implemented by the Govt of Assam, Tourism Department through Assam Tourism Development Corporation, the initiative aims to invigorate tourism by harnessing the rich cultural tapestry and warm hospitality of local communities.

• Published On Mar 5, 2024 at 10:02 PM IST

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Why are people protesting against tourists in Barcelona?

Thousands of protesters have hit the streets of central Barcelona to denounce mass tourism and its effect on Spain's most visited city, the latest in a series of similar marches around the country.

The protesters stopped in front of hotels and restaurants to confront tourists, symbolically taping off some businesses and carrying signs reading "Barcelona is not for sale" and "Tourists go home".

Footage showed demonstrators shooting colourful water pistols at tourists eating outdoors at restaurants, with some soggy diners awkwardly shuffling to a different table.

"I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we are suffering from an excess of tourism that has made our city unliveable," said Jordi Guiu, a 70-year-old sociologist.

The group of protesters marching along a waterfront district in Barcelona on Saturday was some 2,800 strong, police said.

Here's what has led to the locals' frustrations bubbling over in the incredibly popular travel destination.

Housing costs in the heart of tensions

The key driver behind the protests is the rising cost of housing due to mass tourism, while the negative effects on local commerce and working conditions also play a role.

Housing costs in Barcelona have increased significantly, with rents up 68 per cent and the cost of buying a house up 38 per cent in the past decade , according to local authorities.

In the past year alone, rents in the city rose by 18 per cent, according to property website Idealista.

"Local shops are closing to make way for stores that do not serve the needs of neighbourhoods. People cannot afford their rents," Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta district, told AFP.

Short-term holiday rentals under scrutiny

Barcelona's mayor Jaume Collboni announced last month that it was banning tourist apartment rentals by 2028 to combat the "negative effects of mass tourism".

The plan is to scrap the licenses of the 10,000-plus apartments currently approved as short-term rentals and put them back on the local housing market .

"We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona's largest problem," Mr Collboni told a city government event.

The announcement could lead to a legal battle and is opposed by Barcelona's tourist apartments association, APARTUR, which says it will feed the black market.

"Collboni is making a mistake that will lead to [higher] poverty and unemployment," APARTUR said in a statement.

Inside Airbnb, a website providing data about the impact of the vacation rentals platform on residential communities, says there are over 18,000 listings in Barcelona .

More than half of the listings were entire homes or apartments , as opposed to a host renting out a room or section of a property they live in, according to the website. About one in three were unlicensed .

Nearly three quarters of hosts in the city had multiple listings .

Restrictions on short-term rentals have been announced by local governments around the world as residents increasingly get priced out of popular travel destinations due to gentrification and owner preference for lucrative tourist rentals over long-term rentals for locals.

Tourism-reliant economy questioned

Spain has long been a popular holiday destination for its warm weather, rich history and sunny beaches.

But the country is struggling to balance promoting tourism, a key driver of its economy, and addressing citizens' concerns over housing availability and costs.

Spain was the second most-visited country in the world in 2023, behind France, according to World Tourism rankings by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

It received 85 million foreign visitors in 2023, an increase of nearly 20 per cent from the previous year, according to the National Statistics Institute.

The most-visited region of Spain was Catalonia, with 18 million foreign visitors. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia.

The coastal city alone, with its many internationally famous sites such as La Sagrada Familia, received more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.

The protesters in Barcelona are aware of the importance of tourism to the economy, but want to see that change.

A protester told Reuters one of the reasons she was attending the demonstration was to protest "against the economic model based on mass tourism."

"This model makes us poorer and more dependent," said Nuria Suarez.

Tensions on the rise around Spain

Barcelona isn't the only place in Spain where tourism is creating tension in the local community.

The Barcelona protests come after similar demonstrations in other tourist hotspots such as Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and the Canary Islands, some attended by tens of thousands of people.

Seasonal hospitality workers struggle to find accommodation, with many resorting to sleeping in caravans or even their cars.

The national government is taking notice, with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announcing last week that the government would create a registry of holiday rental properties in a bid to limit the number of listings .

Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said the registry would be ready by the end of 2025 at the earliest. When that happens, online platforms will have to provide data about hosts to verify if they are allowed to rent their homes.

The government is also looking to take steps to curb mid-term rentals ranging from one to 11 months, and may give neighbours in apartment blocks a say over whether an owner can list their property on platforms, the minister said.

But some don't feel the measures are enough.

"The rise of tourist rentals is a major problem and these measures are not serious," said Victor Palomo, leader of the Madrid Tenants' Union after meeting with the housing minister.

"It can't be that it's only neighbours that are in charge of regulating them," he said, calling for landlords to pay more taxes.

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Tourism’s Importance for Growth Highlighted in World Economic Outlook Report

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• 10 Nov 2023

Tourism has again been identified as a key driver of economic recovery and growth in a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With UNWTO data pointing to a return to 95% of pre-pandemic tourist numbers by the end of the year in the best case scenario, the IMF report outlines the positive impact the sector’s rapid recovery will have on certain economies worldwide.

According to the World Economic Outlook (WEO) Report , the global economy will grow an estimated 3.0% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024. While this is higher than previous forecasts, it is nevertheless below the 3.5% rate of growth recorded in 2022, pointing to the continued impacts of the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and from the cost-of-living crisis.

Tourism key sector for growth

The WEO report analyses economic growth in every global region, connecting performance with key sectors, including tourism. Notably, those economies with "large travel and tourism sectors" show strong economic resilience and robust levels of economic activity. More specifically, countries where tourism represents a high percentage of GDP   have recorded faster recovery from the impacts of the pandemic in comparison to economies where tourism is not a significant sector.

As the report Foreword notes: "Strong demand for services has supported service-oriented economies—including important tourism destinations such as France and Spain".

Looking Ahead

The latest outlook from the IMF comes on the back of UNWTO's most recent analysis of the prospects for tourism, at the global and regional levels. Pending the release of the November 2023 World Tourism Barometer , international tourism is on track to reach 80% to 95% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023. Prospects for September-December 2023 point to continued recovery, driven by the still pent-up demand and increased air connectivity particularly in Asia and the Pacific where recovery is still subdued.

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By: Bastian Herre , Veronika Samborska and Max Roser

Tourism has massively increased in recent decades. Aviation has opened up travel from domestic to international. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of international visits had more than doubled since 2000.

Tourism can be important for both the travelers and the people in the countries they visit.

For visitors, traveling can increase their understanding of and appreciation for people in other countries and their cultures.

And in many countries, many people rely on tourism for their income. In some, it is one of the largest industries.

But tourism also has externalities: it contributes to global carbon emissions and can encroach on local environments and cultures.

On this page, you can find data and visualizations on the history and current state of tourism across the world.

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• COVID-19: impact on the tourism industry worldwide ›

International Tourism to Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels in 2024

Tourism recovery after covid-19.

While few industries were spared by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic over the past three years, even fewer have been hit as hard as the tourism sector . After Covid-19 had made 2020 " the worst year in tourism history ", international tourist arrivals increased by just 13 percent in 2021, as travel restrictions remained in place for long periods in many parts of the world. Now, nearly four years after the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic, optimism has finally returned to the industry.

According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer , global tourism continued its recovery in 2023, ending the year at 88 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with an estimated 1.3 billion international tourist arrivals. China's reopening earlier in 2023 had marked another milestone on the road to full recovery, after the region long trailed behind the rest of the world. In the first nine months of 2023, international tourist arrivals in the Asia-Pacific region reached 62 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with a clear upward trend towards the end of that period. That's a significant improvement compared to 2022, when the region saw just 26 percent of 2019 arrivals due to ongoing travel restrictions, especially in China.

Citing the “unleashing of remaining pent-up demand, increased air connectivity, and a stronger recovery of Asian markets and destinations”, the UNWTO now expects international tourism to make a full recovery by the end of 2024. This is no mean feat considering the challenging economic backdrop and the uncertainties associated with lingering geopolitical tensions and several ongoing conflicts.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the global tourism sector had seen almost uninterrupted growth for decades. Since 1980, the number of international arrivals skyrocketed from 277 million to nearly 1.5 billion in 2019. As our chart shows, the two largest crises of the past decades, the SARS epidemic of 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2009, were minor bumps in the road compared to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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China’s Visa-Waiver Policy Boosts Inbound Tourism: Foreign Visitors Up 152%

Peden Doma Bhutia , Skift

July 9th, 2024 at 5:18 AM EDT

After the pandemic-induced slump, China’s simplification of visa procedures appears to have paid off, with foreign visitors in the first half of the year soaring 152% compared to the year before.

Peden Doma Bhutia

In the first half of the year, 14.64 million foreigners visited China, marking a 152% year-on-year increase, according to the National Immigration Administration.

China, historically a major player in outbound tourism, is now focusing on boosting its inbound arrivals. Recent visa-free policy changes appear to have helped increase the number of foreign visitors to the country.

Over 8.5 million visa-free entries were recorded from the period between January to June this year, making up 58% of inbound travel, reflecting a 190% increase year-on-year.

Despite this growth, current numbers still fall short of the pre-Covid benchmark of 15.53 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2019.

China’s National Immigration Service reported processing 287 million inbound and outbound trips in the first six months of 2024, a 71% year-on-year increase. These included 137 million visits by mainland residents, 121 million by Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan residents, and 29.2 million by foreigners.

China’s Visa Waiver Policies

China has simplified visa procedures with more than 40 countries and has mutual visa waiver agreements with more than 20, according to reports . New Zealand, Australia and Poland are the latest countries to join the country’s expanding visa waiver program .

In November,  China introduced a one-year trial for visa-free travel  for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia. In March,  this program was expanded to include Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

China initially announced the visa-free policy for a trial period until November 30 this year, but has now extended it until December 31, 2025.

Travelers with ordinary passports from these countries can enjoy visa-free stays of up to 15 days for business, tourism, family visits, or transit purposes.

The Chinese government has also relaxed entry regulations for tourists arriving via cruise ships. As of May 15, such visitors can stay in China visa-free for up to 15 days.

The expanded visa-free transit policy, effective since last November, now includes citizens from 54 countries. They can stay up to 144 hours without a visa in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, provided they have a valid onward ticket. Cruise ship passengers also benefit from this exemption.

Beijing’s Inbound Growth

Beijing also saw a significant increase in foreign visitors in the first half of 2024, with over one million visiting the capital, a 257% year-on-year increase, according to data from the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection.

Over 159,000 foreign nationals from the 12 visa-exempt countries have entered the city under China’s visa-free policy this year, according to the Beijing exit and entry authority. Foreign nationals coming to Beijing can now also apply for a temporary driving license upon arrival at the airport.

The border inspection office is also helping local travel agencies organize international group tours more efficiently. In the first half of the year, more than 30,000 foreign visitors came to Beijing as part of such tours, a 30-fold increase compared with the same period last year.

During the same period, 33,700 eligible foreign travelers utilized China’s 144-hour visa-free transit policy, a seven-fold increase year-on-year.

Easing of Entry for Hong Kong and Macau Residents

In other related developments, China will also now allow Hong Kong and Macau permanent residents to apply for multiple-entry travel visas to mainland China, each valid for five years.

From July 10, foreign permanent residents of these cities can apply for such visas, though each stay cannot exceed 90 days, as announced by the National Immigration Administration.

The government said the initiative aims, to further facilitate exchanges between mainland Chinese people and those in Hong Kong and Macau, aiding them to “better integrate into the overall national development.”

Non-Chinese residents from these regions traveling for short-term purposes like investment, visiting relatives, tourism, business, and seminars can apply for the permit through authorized services. However, the permit does not allow holders to work, study, or engage in news coverage activities on the mainland. Those intending to do so must apply for other visas or residence permits.

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Tags: asia monthly , china , coronavirus recovery , hong kong , macau , transit , visa waiver , visas

Photo credit: Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Pxhere

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• Trade, tourism boost growth momentum of Chinese economy

Imports and exports going through key transportation hubs in China have witnessed growth during the first half of the year, boosting the Chinese economy together with an increasingly hot tourism market, CCTV.com reported on Sunday.

As the most important transportation hub between China and Central Asia and Central Europe, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region registered total foreign trade volume of 185.64 billion yuan ($25.54 billion) from Jan to May this year, up 52.1 percent on a yearly basis, ranking second in terms of growth rate nationwide.

Alashankou Port and Khorgos Port in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are the two most important railway ports to Central Asia and Europe in China, with more than 40 percent of China-Europe freight trains passing through these two ports. This year, the number of China-Europe (or China-Asia) freight trains passing through these two ports exceeds 40 daily.

In the first half of 2024, 7,746 China-Europe freight train trips passed through the Alashankou and Khorgos ports, an increase of 8.2 percent year-on-year, the report said.

Nowadays, the category of goods transported at the two ports has increased from the original daily necessities and ores to more than 200 kinds, including wood, chemicals, machineries, cotton yarn, building materials, new energy vehicles, and electronic products.

In recent years, home-made new energy vehicles have become popular overseas, and cars from Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and other places are exported to Central Asia, Europe and other regions via Alashankou and Khorgos ports, providing strong support for promoting the construction of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

With the arrival of graduation season and summer vacation, the tourism market around China is also ushering in the summer peak season. With the expansion of China's visa-free countries, the number of foreign tourists entering the country has increased significantly.

Latest data show that during the summer rush from July 1 to Aug 31, the number of air ticket bookings from various provinces and regions in China to and from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region increased by about 27 percent compared with the same period in 2023.

As an important transportation hub in East China, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport currently operates more than 30 international (regional) passenger routes, serving 21 countries on four continents, and more than 500 inbound and outbound passenger flights per week.

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S’pore economy saw better-than-expected growth of 2.9% in Q2; Q1 growth revised up to 3%

SINGAPORE - Economic growth in the past three months added to the fastest pace of expansion in six quarters, as reviving global demand for electronic goods put Singapore’s semiconductor industry back in the driving seat.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.9 per cent year on year in the second quarter, according to advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on July 12. That came after the first-quarter growth was revised higher to 3 per cent – the fastest pace since the 4.2 per cent expansion in the third quarter of 2022.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis and seasonally adjusted, the economy expanded 0.4 per cent, the most since the second quarter of 2023 and up from a revised 0.3 per cent gain in the first quarter of 2024.

The year-on-year growth was higher than the 2.7 per cent forecast by economists polled by Bloomberg, while quarter-on-quarter growth was in line with their projection.

Growth was supported by a 0.5 per cent year-on-year rebound in manufacturing, after a 1.7 per cent contraction in the first three months of the year.

Along with construction that grew 4.3 per cent, the overall goods-producing industry posted an expansion of 1.3 per cent versus contraction of 0.7 per cent.

The manufacturing sector expansion in the second quarter saw growth across all its clusters, except for biomedical manufacturing and precision engineering, said MTI.

On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, manufacturing grew by 0.6 per cent, rebounding from the 5.3 per cent contraction in the first quarter.

Second-quarter GDP growth was also aided by the group of clusters comprising the information and communications, finance and insurance, and professional services sectors. Together, they grew by 5.6 per cent year on year, extending the 5.7 per cent growth in the first quarter.

However, growth slowed in the services sector to 1.9 per cent from 3 per cent in the previous quarter. This sector comprises accommodation and food services, real estate, administrative and support services, and other services.

Still, the overall spurt in GDP growth will likely help the economy achieve MTI’s full-year 2024 forecast of 1 per cent to 3 per cent growth.

With first-half growth coming at 3 per cent – at the top end of the MTI forecast – most analysts quickly upgraded their own estimates.

Oxford Economics raised its 2024 GDP forecast to 2.5 per cent from 2.2 per cent. Ms Sheana Yue, an economist at the Britain-based independent advisory firm, said the manufacturing rebound means goods exports should continue to provide a much-needed boost to the economy thanks to the upturn in the global chips cycle.

However, Singapore’s domestic demand is likely to stay sluggish.

“Softer labour demand and high interest rates are likely to deter investment and keep Singaporean consumers in cautious mode,” said Ms Yue.

OCBC Bank also raised its 2024 GDP forecast to 2.6 per cent from 2.3 per cent.

Ms Selena Ling, its head of research and strategy, said the external economic environment has improved as more investors now believe in the global soft landing narrative – the end of the inflationary surge without a recession. Also, expectations are rising that the US Federal Reserve will deliver a rate cut soon.

But the global geopolitical landscape remains fraught with uncertainties.

The key event risk on the horizon is the November presidential election in the United States, with a high probability of Donald Trump winning another term. Trump has pledged to slap a flat 60 per cent tariff on all imports from China and 10 per cent on shipments from the rest of the world.

Ms Ling said if traders decide to front load exports and imports in anticipation of a tougher trade environment in 2025, manufacturing and exports growth may in fact accelerate across Asia.

“This may ironically be a tailwind for manufacturing and trade,” she said.

The GDP data follows June’s release of factory output figures, showing a surprise 2.9 per cent year-on-year rebound in May.

In that report, the jump in manufacturing was powered by the electronic sector’s robust growth of 20.1 per cent against a 1.1 contraction in April. The strongest performance within electronics was from the semiconductor segment which rebounded by 20.6 per cent in May after shrinking 2.6 per cent in April and 14.3 per cent in March.

The strength of global demand was also reflected in the recent surge in container and air cargo traffic at Singapore ports.

Changi Airport reported 170,000 tonnes in air freight handled in May, a 20 per cent year-on-year jump. Despite congestion at ports worldwide due to the Red Sea crisis, container throughput at Singapore’s port hit the highest level in 2024 in May at 3.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units.

Still, purchasing managers’ index data from Singapore and across Asia showed supplier delivery times have likely risen as vessels were diverted to Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, to avoid the ongoing attacks by Houthi rebels on Red Sea ships. 

Some analysts have warned that the rerouting – which has already led to an increase in sailing times and upward pressure on freight rates – could have a chilling effect on exports going forward.

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Oahu Small Businesses Forge New Strategies To Offset The Decline In Japanese Tourism

Economic factors are changing the way Japanese visitors perceive a trip to Hawaii in the post-pandemic era — and the growth model of small businesses that cater specifically to them.

For more than 18 years, Sugako Johnson was one of the few Hawaii-based wedding planners who catered specifically to Japanese couples seeking an American-style wedding.

Her independent business on Oahu, which she refers to as “a one-man show,” didn’t fit the model for how most of the industry operates. 

“More than 90% of Japanese couples getting married in Hawaii go through Japanese companies selling cookie cutter-style wedding packages,” Johnson said. “They’re not local businesses. They’re Japanese businesses selling Hawaiian weddings to Japanese people.”

But all changed in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. With travel restrictions stalling the arrival of Japanese visitors, who made up to 90% of her client base, Johnson had no choice but to move out of her office and begin considering making a change in her business model. 

The effects of the lockdown were brutal to the Japanese wedding industry in Hawaii. Watabe Wedding Corp., an industry pioneer known to be one of the largest wedding planners for Japanese clients, was on the verge of collapse until a trading and pharmaceutical company acquired it in 2021.

But for small local businesses like Johnson’s Bliss Bridal, a total revamp was the only alternative to shutting down. 

She started a new job as a venue coordinator on the North Shore and expanded her network with other local wedding professionals, scoring a few commissions from American couples.

As the pandemic wound down, she had completely pivoted away from an exclusively Japanese-targeted service. Today, merely 20% of her clients are from Japan. 

“Now I try to market myself differently,” Johnson said. “My strength has been Japanese planning, for sure. But I don’t want my clients to see me specializing only in that. I want them to see that I can do both — planning for locals and the Japanese.”

Before the pandemic, around 1.5 million tourists from Japan visited Hawaii each year. But with the Japanese yen plummeting to a 38-year low against the U.S. dollar, they are yet to return in pre-pandemic numbers.

Independent businesses catering to this major market are pivotal to Hawaii’s tourism industry. Tourists who do not use Japanese travel agencies prefer to use services that offer information in Japanese, Akiko Oshima, economic consul of the consulate general of Japan in Honolulu, said in an email.

These small businesses, mostly run by Japanese-speaking locals, make their travel experience much smoother.

But to mitigate the risk of a possible long-term recession of their key customer base, many of these operations are forging new business models.

A Decades-Low Yen And Inflation

Often referring to Hawaii as their dream destination, Japanese tourists made up around 15% of total visitors in 2019. This year, their presence in the Hawaiian Islands has dropped to around 7% of the entire visitor count, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The number of visitors from Japan during the first three months this year was less than half of what it was during the same period before the pandemic.

Eugene Tian, DBEDT’s chief economist, said that the main reason behind this slow recovery lies in an exchange rate that discourages Japanese people from planning a costly trip to the U.S. 

Moreover, the historically low yen is leading those who do come to spend less.

“The most important measure for tourism is actually visitor spending,” Tian said. “We see that it is only the Japanese that decreased their spending compared to 2019.”

During the first five months of 2019, Japanese visitors spent an average of $239 every day, including lodging, food and retail expenditures. This year, they spent almost the exact same amount, around $238. 

But taking into account inflation, daily spending for Japanese visitors has decreased, Tian said. 

Hotel prices, for example, have increased around 34% compared to 2019, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s May  Hawaii Hotel Performance Report . After allocating a large share of their budget to inflated travel costs, Japanese tourists are left with a much lower budget for optional spending like shopping.

Compared to 2019, shopping expenditure among Japanese tourists decreased by 28% this year while spending on lodging, transportation and food all saw double-digit increases, according to DBEDT.

All of this has led East Asian tourists to take a dimmer view of their Hawaii experience.

This year, nearly 40% of Japanese tourists said their visit to Oahu was a poor value, according to a DBEDT survey. Among mainland visitors unaffected by the exchange rate, only 4% rated their trip to the islands as a bad deal.

This economic trends have prompted Japanese vacationers to turn to cheaper destinations within Asia, according to Dan Spencer, director of the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii Manoa. 

He said that Japanese tourists may be more inclined to consider similar destinations closer to home.

“We now have a great deal more competition across Asia, especially in countries like South Korea, Singapore and the Hainan province of China,” Spencer said. “Asia in general — and Southeast Asia in particular — has been one of the fastest growing tourism regions in the world, and now it is affecting us here in Hawaii. We just have a much more competitive landscape than in the past.”

Both Tian and Spencer said that it may take a couple more years, maybe sometime in 2026, for the number of Japanese tourists to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Shifting Business Models

As a result, small businesses are developing strategies to reach new demographic groups.

Shingo Sawada, owner of Lomino Hawaii Massage School, used to offer two services: outcall massage sessions, his main business, and workshop courses for tourists who wanted to learn massage techniques during their trips to Hawaii. 

During the pandemic, on top of completely losing his Japanese tourist customers — who had made up over 95% of his outcall massage client base — he had to deal with social gathering restrictions that prohibited indoor meetings like his class sessions.

Unable to hold classes in the school, Sawada took his sessions outdoors by renting a garden chapel that was once a popular wedding venue. Setting canopies and massage tables in the open air, his team was able to continue operating with a handful of local students they found through a newly-built English website, social media ads and two appearances on local television programs.

Today, with his outcall massage business still struggling, Sawada plans to pivot further. He’s focusing more on his class and plans to reinforce his “event massage” service, a new venture that provides massage sessions during corporate events such as wellness days and company retreats. 

As for his classes, Sawada is seeking more students from the mainland by offering training sessions in English.  

“We’ll keep changing our target to more locals and people from the mainland,” Sawada said. “They’re increasing step by step.”

Byongyun Lee’s Hana Taxi, a taxi tour service that used to rely heavily on Japanese visitors, began running ads on Yelp to penetrate the American market. He found success in attracting customers from the mainland and South Korea during the pandemic.

This year, he says, the company has not seen a rebound in Japanese customers because of the yen’s sharp decline. To adjust, Lee plans to launch an app service to facilitate communication and reservation with a more diverse client base from around the world.

The historically low yen has also transformed how the Japanese perceive weddings in Hawaii. 

Before the pandemic, “photo weddings,” a simplified version of a normal wedding ceremony, were a major trend in the Japanese wedding industry on Oahu, Johnson said. For less than $1,000, Japanese couples could rent a dress, get hair and makeup done, get taken to popular photo spots like Magic Island or Waimanalo Beach and hire a photographer for an hour to capture their brisk ceremony. It was highly sought-after and cheaper alternative to wedding ceremonies in Japan.

Most of these photo weddings, along with the businesses that offered them, went under during the pandemic. 

For today’s Japanese tourists, a Hawaii wedding has become a near-luxury.

“Now when I see Japanese people getting married in Waikiki, I think to myself, ‘Oh, they must be pretty well-off,’” Johnson said.

Nami Arai, store manager of jewelry shop Maxi in Waikiki, has lately noticed a change in the purchasing patterns of her predominantly Japanese customer base. 

Visitors before the pandemic would purchase her store’s luxury goods as small souvenirs to commemorate a wide variety of occasions, including birthdays, family vacations and even company trips. Now, most of her customers are there to treat themselves as part of once-in-a-lifetime celebrations, such as weddings and honeymoons.  

Like many other independent businesses catering specifically to Japanese visitors, Maxi had to deal with the dire effects of the pandemic. To find an alternative for Japanese tourists, who used to make up 90% the customer base, Arai and her team sought many ways to diversify. While they had advertised only in Japanese magazines and travel guides for tourists before Covid, they began targeting English-speaking visitors as well. They increased the number of English posts on social media and trained their staff to provide customer service in English.

What truly saved the business from going under was starting an online shop, which allowed Japanese residents on lockdown to purchase its products from home. 

“Before the pandemic, we kept our website just as a catalogue of our products,” Arai said. “But changing it to an online shop during Covid really saved our business.”

Their web presence boosted sales, far exceeding pre-pandemic levels. 

Today, the majority of Maxi’s shoppers are still Japanese, many of whom purchase their jewelry online. Arai and her team plans to maintain, if not further develop, their online shop to serve those staying in Japan.

For Johnson, an expansion into the local market was a blessing in disguise. She is relieved that she managed to find a way to keep her business running and strongly believes that stepping into the local wedding planning scene is benefitting her business in the long run.

“When Covid first hit, it was so hard to pivot because there was no formula for these situations,” Johnson said. “I didn’t really bounce back yet, but I survived.”

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