Tourism | Chinese tourists swap Macau and HK for Japan during ‘golden week’

A group of Chinese tourists stand with shopping bags at the Canal City Hakata commercial complex in Fukuoka, Japan

During this month’s “golden week” approximately 400,000 tourists from mainland China visited Japan and spent nearly 100 billion yen, or around USD830 million on shopping during the period from Oct 1-7.
According to China Daily, these figures represent a growth of double year-to-year. The number of mainland tourists going to Japan during the period doubled, according to Nationwide Tourist Group Services Management System.
Chinese customers were seen queuing up at Japanese malls to buy goods. Facial masks, toilet seats, thermoses and other household items, shavers and luxury goods topped the “most wanted” list for tourists. On the rise were also medical services and drugs, making Japan a top medical tourism destination.
Reports indicate that many stores across the busiest tourist areas even had to put a limit on the quantity that each customer could purchase amid fears of a sellout.
According to Global Blue, an international company that handles tax refunds for international shoppers, the shopping spree by Chinese tourists has boosted the Japanese economy by around 0.1 percent to a 20-year high.
Data from the Nationwide Tourist Group Services Management System shows that outbound tourists (except those heading to Hong Kong) grew by 36.6 percent year-on-year in the first four days of the weeklong holiday. Figures backed by Chinese online travel platform CTrip showed Japan was the most popular overseas travel destination for Chinese mainland vacationers during the “golden week,” followed by Thailand and South Korea. On this list, CTrip places Hong Kong in fourth place, followed by Macau.
Japan’s popularity among Chinese travelers started to surge within the first six months of this year when some 2.18 million Chinese tourists went to Japan, doubling from the year before.
The devaluation of the yen and the high quality reputation of Japanese goods are two of the main reasons listed as the top attractions for Chinese tourists this year.
The National Day holiday has become an annual tourism event for mainlanders and a boon for many of the host economies. Traditionally Macau and Hong Kong have been targeted as the main destinations but, as the Times reported yesterday, the number of Chinese tourists flocking to both SARs during the holidays increased at a slower pace this year, when visitations gained 17 percent, according to Macau government data, and decelerated to 2.3 percent from 6.8 percent, according to Hong Kong government data.
This new influx of Chinese tourists has already led to some retailers in Japan, South Korea and France introducing Mandarin-speaking shop assistants and signage written in Chinese, in order to become more accommodating to mainland shoppers. RM