Chairman of the Japan Travel Agency Association “Korea is the most important country among key travel destinations”
Japan Travel Agency Association (JATA) president Hiroyuki Takahashi said on the 25th, “Following K-pop such as Kara, Girls’ Generation, and BTS, K-dramas such as ‘Crash Landing on You’ It is expected that the number of Japanese tourists visiting Korea will increase significantly in the future.”
Chairman Takahashi said at a Korea-Japan tourism seminar held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, hosted by the Japan Tourism Agency, “The recovery rate of Japanese people traveling to Korea is much faster than Hawaii, Taiwan, and Thailand, which were previously popular destinations.”
According to Chairman Takahashi, Japanese outbound travel in May recovered 47% from 2019. Among them, Japanese tourists visiting Korea have recovered to 65% of 2019, leading the overall recovery.
Chairman Takahashi said, “The Japan Tourism Agency works with the Japan Travel Agency Association to promote overseas travel, ‘Now is the time to go abroad!’ After announcing the declaration, 24 countries were selected as priority travel destinations,” he said, stressing that “Korea is the most important country among them.”
Chairman Takahashi introduced that the Japan Travel Agency Association is working in various ways with the Korea Tourism Organization, developing high value-added products and promoting local regions.
In addition, he requested active cooperation from the Korean and Japanese governments and local governments for exchanges between sister schools, saying that more and more Japanese schools want to go on school trips to Korea.
Chairman Takahashi said, “Please consider strengthening incentives and promotions to attract tourists to local cities,” and added, “As we enter a new era of tourism, Korea and Japan are the most important partners promoting two-way exchanges.”
Park Jong-taek, director of tourism policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Ichiro Takahashi, minister of the Japan Tourism Agency, also attended the event.
Director Park said, “Koreans’ demand for travel to Japan is rapidly increasing, and more than 90% of the skyways connecting Korea and Japan have recovered.” We are approaching the industry with anticipation and excitement.”
He said, “We will further promote exchanges between Korea and Japan by utilizing local airports.” “We will expand K-culture events that foreign tourists can easily enjoy,” he said.
Minister of Japan Tourism Takahashi said, “Koreans have been the number one foreign tourist visiting Japan ever since October last year, when travel restrictions due to corona were eased.” “Thank you so much for visiting Japan.”
(Source: Yonhap News / Translation of an article : Hyemin Moon from JT News)
