Japanese flock to Hong Kong, lured by nostalgic, ‘kawaii’ appeal of pandas, Labubu
The number of Japanese tourists to Hong Kong has jumped more than 32 per cent in the first half of this year compared to 2024
Between January and July, 395,375 Japanese travelled to Hong Kong, a healthy 32.2 per cent increase on the same period last year. This figure is still, however, slightly more than 46 per cent down on arrivals in 2018, immediately before the coronavirus pandemic brought tourism around the world to a screeching halt.
The positive figures reflect efforts by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) to draw more arrivals from a tough market in the face of the weak Japanese yen.
“Japan is a difficult market … A lot of Japanese people are still nervous about travelling abroad and many have not renewed passports that expired during the pandemic. They used to travel abroad but a lot seem to prefer to travel in Japan now and they have got out of the habit of going abroad,” Marii Hayashi, assistant manager for public relations at HKTB’s Tokyo office, told This Week in Asia.