Japan II

Japan is one of those places that you want to visit sometime. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Kobe or Sapporo are destinations that sound good all over the world and the bullet train is a reference in public transport.

Culture, gastronomy, shopping, nature and technology are some of the attractions to discover.

KAYAK, the search engine that is part of Booking Holdings, reported a few hours ago that Japan, during February, had the highest growth in searches to travel from Mexico. In second place was the romantic Italy.

This information is more than taken into account by Aeroméxico, which in the second half of March will fly directly to Rome (its airport, Fiumicino, is already in the select group of those that offer the best quality of services, according to Skytrax) and will resume its route to Tokyo (to date it is only operated from the International Airport of Mexico City by the company All Nippon Always, ANA).

Honoring its well-known discipline and planning, the Asian country is working on one goal: to attract 60 million international tourists in 2030 (in 2019 its record of 31.8 million was recorded). Tourism promotion is key. With that certainty, on November 4, 2021, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) opened an office in Mexico City as the only base to serve Latin America.

The JNTO is a government organization that works together with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Japan Tourism Agency in the promotion of its attractions, it has offices in the 24 main cities of the world and its website is available in more of 12 languages.

Right now, in Japan, sanitary protocols remain in force and to do tourism you have to meet requirements that, thanks to the technological facilities they offer (such as a website to explain the steps to follow in detail) take pressure off.

Its interest in facilitating the arrival of visitors is evident, who will be surprised even before landing at some of its airports by the number of islands that can be seen from above.

Despite the efforts, the return to pre-Covid-19 levels is slow. The latest data reported by the JNTO indicates that 1,497,300 international tourists arrived last January, 44.3% less than the same month in 2019. Its main source markets are: South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

During that month, Mexico ranked 15th (below the United States and Canada) with 2,300 tourists, 36.4% less than before the health crisis. Over the months, the number will grow with the new Aeroméxico air connection and there will also be a greater arrival of Japanese (at the end of 2022, the Asian nation was ranked 22nd in terms of issuers of tourists to Mexico).

By the way, these days, one of the most used tennis brands among young people is Nike, whose creator, Phil Knight, tells in his book “Never stop” how transcendental a trip he made to Japan was for him to create your business. Tourism and inspiration.

alejandro.delarosa@eleconomista.mx