Chinese Herald Special Report Group
According to the forecast report released by the China Tourism Academy (data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) on January 2, the China Tourism Academy has a positive and optimistic expectation for the tourism economic situation in 2024, and it is expected that the number of domestic tourists and domestic tourism revenue will exceed 6 billion and 6 trillion yuan respectively in 2024, and the number of inbound and outbound tourists and international tourism revenue will exceed 264 million respectively. $107 billion, while Japan remains a popular tourist destination.
Japan ranks second among the top tourist destinations
Kyodo News reported that China's official think tank "China Tourism Academy" recently released a report saying that as the new crown epidemic subsides, the number of Chinese outbound tourists in 2024 is predicted to be 130 million, an increase of 49% from the previous year. In terms of countries and regions, Japan ranks second only to Hong Kong among the destinations that are willing to visit. The number of Chinese visiting Southeast Asian countries that have concluded agreements on mutual exemption of short-term visas is also expected to increase.
The number of Chinese outbound tourists was 155 million in 2019 before the pandemic. During the epidemic, the number of people dropped sharply to about 20 million ~ 30 million in 2020~2022. In 2023, the ban on most overseas group tours will be lifted, and the number of people will recover to 87 million. It is expected to rebound to about 8% of 2019 in 2024.
Tokyo Asakusa is a popular spot for foreign tourists. Zhang Shi photography
In China, tourism to Japan, which was popular before the pandemic, was canceled shortly after TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant treated water was discharged into the sea in August last year, but the impact was thought to be limited.
On January 2, the website of the China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) published an article signed by Dai Bin entitled "Prosperity Begins—— 2023 Tourism Economy Review and 2024 Outlook", the article pointed out:
After three years of deep recession, the domestic tourism market will recover rapidly in 2023, the inbound and outbound tourism market has achieved expected growth, the tourism supply chain has been steadily repaired, and consumer expectations and entrepreneurs' confidence have risen steadily. With the "Super Golden Week" of the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon, domestic tourism and national leisure in 2024 will enter a new stage of prosperity and development, and the recovery process of the inbound and outbound tourism market will be further accelerated. The construction of world-class tourist cities, world-class tourist attractions and resorts, national tourism routes, and national tourist cities and neighborhoods is expected to be further accelerated, and tourism investment, project construction and entrepreneurship and innovation of market players will also usher in a new round of rational growth.
According to Japan's "Tomako-herdsman" newspaper reported on February 10:
February 10 coincides with the "Spring Festival" of the Chinese Lunar New Year, and international flights at New Chitose Airport are crowded with inbound tourists. Regular passenger flights to and from the Chugoku area are resuming, passenger demand is recovering from the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and tourists are entering Hokkaido for long vacations.
During the Lunar New Year holiday in 2021 and 2022, there were no regular international flights to New Chitose due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. Scheduled flights will resume in July 2022, to a certain extent during the Spring Festival in 2023, and direct flights to Chinese mainland will resume in July of the same year. With the arrival of the Lunar New Year this year, passenger demand continues to recover.
According to Hokkaido Airport (HAP) and others, there will be a total of 103 round-trip flights to the China Metropolitan Area from February 10 to 16 during the Spring Festival this year. Some airlines increased flights during the Spring Festival, with 37 round-trip flights per week, an increase of more than 50% over last year. This number has recovered to just under 30% compared to the 140 weekly round trips in January 2020 before the coronavirus outbreak.
Among them, there are 36 round-trip flights to Taiwan per week, 28 round-trip flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen in Chinese mainland, 17 round-trip flights to Hong Kong, 14 round-trip flights to Bangkok, Thailand, and four round-trip flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore.
China's first domestically produced large cruise ship, the "Aida Modu" (135,500 tons, maximum passenger capacity of 5,260 passengers), began operation in January and has also become a hot topic for outbound tourism during the Spring Festival. The ship is China's first newly-built large cruise ship, built at the Waigaoqiao Shipyard in Shanghai. On February 9, the Chinese New Year's Eve, the "Aida Modu", which had just finished its last voyage, docked at Wusongkou International Cruise Port Terminal for several hours, and then departed again at 16 o'clock on February 9 to start a 5-night and 6-day Spring Festival themed voyage.
On this Chinese New Year voyage, 1,300 crew members from more than 30 countries and regions and nearly 4,600 Chinese and foreign guests will celebrate the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon and share the Chinese Year at sea. The passenger capacity of nearly 4,600 guests has also set a new high in the passenger flow since the operation of the "Aida Modu".
During the Spring Festival, there are tours from Shanghai to Kagoshima, Nagasaki, and Jeju on the 9th, and Okinawa from Shanghai on the 14th. There were 2,125 rooms on board, but the rooms with balconies sold out quickly.
On January 1, 2024, the "Aida Modu" will embark on its maiden commercial voyage, carrying out a seven-day, six-night voyage from Shanghai to Jeju in South Korea, Nagasaki and Fukuoka in Japan. On the 5th, the "Aida Modu" sailed into Hakata Port for the first time. After touring Jeju Island and Nagasaki, the ship docked at Hakata, where around 3,000 passengers toured city attractions such as Ohori Park and Fukuoka Tower.
On the occasion of the ship's first visit to Fukuoka, the Fukuoka City Minato Airport Bureau and other organizations held a welcoming ceremony on board. First of all, the director of the Fukuoka City Port and Airport Bureau, Kiichiro Takehiro, gave a welcome speech, and the eye-catching welcome banner, cheerful welcome scene, and special fireworks show attracted everyone to take a commemorative photo.
China lifted its ban on group tours in Japan in August 2023, and searches for "Japan" on local travel platforms have increased dramatically. The Japanese subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has also announced that it will soon launch a Japan-China cross-border medical tourism business.
Chinese visiting Japan have begun to pay attention to in-depth travel
At Haneda Airport on the afternoon of February 9, electronic bulletin boards filled with flights from Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The arrival hall was crowded with Chinese tourists who came to Japan for the Chinese New Year. This year's Chinese Spring Festival tours to Japan are mainly "family tours", "friend tours" and "individual tours", and there are many Chinese tourists in the arrival hall of Haneda Airport, but there are almost no tour guides with small flags, which means that there are few group tours, and the tendency to go to local in-depth tours is more obvious.
On February 11, the second day of the first month of the Year of the Dragon, the Spring Festival temple fair of the Temple of Ditan in Beijing kicked off. Photo by China News Service reporter Tomita
In order to welcome the arrival of tourists in the Chinese New Year area, a large number of brand-name products are prepared for customers in the Chinese New Year area at BRAND OFF, a brand store in Nagoya. The store's sales during the Chinese New Year are sometimes 1.6 times higher than usual.
Driven by the depreciation of the yen, people are increasingly inclined to buy a high-end item rather than "buy in bulk". It is said that both Rolex and Japanese whisky are selling well this year.
Sightseeing in Aomori Prefecture is also a hot spot. On the Chinese social media Weibo, tourism in Aomori Prefecture is very popular, with the number of registered users on the prefecture's official account at its peak at 1,308,000. This figure is significantly larger than the population of 1.18 million in Aomori Prefecture. Compared to Osaka's 147,000 and Kanagawa's 94,000, the popularity is an order of magnitude or two.
People wrote in their comments, "The seafood and apple ice cream are also delicious, and I would like to go to Aomori again." "Aomori in winter is even more beautiful because of the snow." In Aomori Prefecture, many Chinese can be seen shopping enthusiastically in shopping malls during the Chinese New Year.
Gujo Hachiman, Gifu Prefecture, is famous for its "Gujo Dance" in Obon all night. Gujo Hachiman Castle is also known as the "Castle in the Sky" and is also very famous.
Gifu ranks fifth in the ranking of popular tourist destinations for visiting Japan during the Chinese New Year, behind standard tourist destinations such as Tokyo, Osaka, Hokkaido, and Kyoto, with 200% of tourists compared to last year. Gifu Prefecture has a tourist attraction in Shirakawa-go. Many Chinese tourists come here in search of the World Heritage-listed gassho-zukuri village and enjoy the beautiful snowy scenery there.
Shirakawa-go, located in Shirakawa-mura, Ohno-gun, Gifu Prefecture, is one of Japan's most popular scenic spots, and was designated as an Important Traditional Buildings Preservation Area in 1976, and in 1995, along with Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture, it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by UNESCO as a Shirakawa-gosan Gassho-zuri Village.
How Japanese people respond to Chinese tourists
In conjunction with the Chinese New Year, the Nagasaki Lantern Festival was held on February 11 in central Nagasaki, Japan, where about 15,000 lanterns were lit up. In order to celebrate the traditional Chinese festival of the Spring Festival and promote tourism and cultural exchanges between China and Japan, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, holds a grand festival called the "Nagasaki Lantern Festival" from the Chinese New Year's Eve day of the first month of the Chinese calendar (February 9) to February 25, the fifteenth day of the first month of the first month. 15,000 Chinese lanterns are lit along the six-kilometer-long Nagasaki city, and a variety of Chinese folk culture and cultural events are held.
The lighting ceremony was held on the evening of the 11th, and the scene was crowded.
With the sound of the countdown "3, 2, 1, light up!", 15,000 Chinese lanterns are lit to the sound of firecrackers and gongs. The lighting ceremony was held at Minato Park, the main venue. The main work in 2024 with the theme of the zodiac is the 10-meter-tall "Nine Carp Transformation Dragon". The carp jumps over the waves and becomes a dragon, which means "sailing against the current, and the future is bright". The park was crowded with visitors and had to restrict entry before the ceremony began.
2024 Tokyo Ueno Panda Spring Festival Event. Zhang Shi photography
During the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, a variety of events are held throughout the city, and actors and singers Masaharu Fukuyama and Isa Nakasato, who were born in the prefecture, will appear in the "Emperor's Parade" on the 17th. The city of Nagasaki announced on January 22 that singer and actor Masaharu Fukuyama (54) and actor Isa Nakasato (34), who will play the roles of emperor and empress, respectively, will wear the costumes of the emperor and empress of the Qing Dynasty for an "emperor parade," with about 170,000 people signing up to watch it. The required number of people for the event is about 26,000, and the number of applicants is already full.
The parade is the highlight of the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, a winter scenery that celebrates the Chinese New Year, and the two of them ride in a Chinese-style sedan chair along the road about 1.3 kilometers in the center of Nagasaki. Winners will be able to watch the lottery in special areas along the route.
The lantern festival began in 1994 and was held on a regular scale after three years due to the impact of the new crown epidemic. The Executive Committee strives to attract 1.36 million visitors.
The Nagasaki Lantern Festival is a joint event organized by the Nagasaki City Government and the Nagasaki Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and originated as a Spring Festival celebration for the Chinese in Nagasaki's Shinchi Chinatown. Since 1994, the Nagasaki City Government has been involved in the Chinatown Spring Festival celebration, which has since become a grand festival in the whole of Nagasaki and the only Spring Festival festival in Japan that is held entirely in accordance with the Chinese lunar calendar.
February 10 Spring Festival began, this year is the Spring Festival of 9 billion people, the Japanese media directly translated into 9 billion people's big mobile, FNN reporter Yamazaki Fumihiro wrote a report: 9 billion people move, it is unimaginable. The Chinese population of 1.4 billion is already difficult to imagine, so 9 billion is meaningless to us to imagine.
The Japanese media is concerned that a significant number of these 9 billion people will come to Japan to play. How can ordinary Japanese people have a great opportunity to meet Chinese, but how can they accept different cultures? A Japanese media person based in Beijing wrote an article and taught Japanese people by hand.
Fumihiro Yamazaki, a Japanese media personality working in Beijing, used his personal experience to introduce the mystery of dealing with Chinese: I go my own way, and I walk away after eating.
He wrote in the article that he had attended the wedding of the Chinese staff of the Beijing branch, the catering was buffet-style, and it was needless to say that he started eating hot pot at noon, and the interesting thing is that after eating, several Chinese left without permission. At that time, the Japanese was eating hot pot at the same table with other Japan, hesitating to know when it was more appropriate to leave, and finally several Japanese people thought "almost" and left together, but I didn't expect that the Chinese would walk away after eating and leaving.
The Japanese feel that it is rude to leave early, so they carefully watch the reactions of the people around them and leave. I was very puzzled by the way the Chinese left after eating, and then I found an opportunity to inquire, and the answer I got was: red envelopes were also given, meals were eaten, and then they were free, right?
After the pandemic, tourism resumed, but more for individual guests. Chinese, especially women, have their own posture when taking selfies, and they don't worry about "being different from the people around them", so if you see most of the people taking pictures with their personality, they are Chinese.
In this regard, Japanese readers have left messages to express their opinions. Most of the opinions are still very welcoming to Chinese guests, but they also want to "follow the local customs".