Japan’s foreign tourist arrivals recover to 66% of pre-Covid level

Tokyo, May 18 (IANS) The number of foreign visitors to Japan in April recovered to 66.6 per cent of the level in the same month of 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, government data showed.

The country saw an estimated 1,949,100 foreign visitors last month amid higher tourism demand during the cherry blossom season, up nearly 14-fold from a year before, Xinhua news agency quoted the Japan National Tourism Organization as saying.

The total number marks the highest figure of foreign visitors since February 2020, when the pandemic caused a sharp decline in arrivals, it said.

Meanwhile, the number of Japanese who went overseas came to 560,200, up from 129,168 in April last year, but still 66.4 per cent less than the same month in 2019, the organisation said.