Chinese visitors to Japan over Lunar New Year to fall short of 2019 level

While many Chinese tourists are expected to arrive in Japan during the Lunar New Year holiday beginning this Saturday, the number will most likely not reach pre-pandemic levels despite it being the first new year since the lifting of a Chinese ban on group tours to Japan.

“It will probably increase about tenfold compared with (the same time) last year, however, it still will only be around 50% or 60% of 2019 numbers,” said aviation and travel analyst Kotaro Toriumi.

While the number of inbound tourists remains on an upward trend, resulting in various parts of the country experiencing overtourism, those from China have remained low in comparison with previous years since Japan opened its borders in October 2022.