By AKIFUMI NAGAHASHI/ Staff Writer
January 18, 2024 at 17:35 JST
Foreign guests at the front desk of Hotel Gracery Shinjuku in Tokyo on Jan. 11 (Akifumi Nagahashi)
Hotels and inns, particularly in major cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto, are reaping the benefits from foreign travelers staying longer following the COVID-19 pandemic due to the weak yen.
At Hotel Gracery Shinjuku, near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, foreigners account for 90 percent of the guests.
“Tourists are coming fast and furious from the United States, Europe and South Korea, pushing up occupancy rates,” a hotel representative said. “It’s as if we’re in the middle of a ‘bubble’ period.”
Fujita Kanko Inc., which operates the hotel, said daily rates at its 35 or so economy hotels and other lodging facilities averaged 13,487 yen ($91) in the July-September period, up about 20 percent from the same period of 2019 before the pandemic.
The figure represents a nearly twofold increase from 2020 amid the pandemic.
Seibu Holdings Inc. also said the average daily rate at its 60 or so facilities, including those under the Prince Hotel brand, between April and November recorded a roughly 20 percent increase from five years earlier.
Tourists from abroad spent a record 5.29 trillion yen in 2023, compared with a pre-pandemic 4.81 trillion yen in 2019, the Japan Tourism Agency reported on Jan. 17.
Expenditures on accommodations accounted for the largest share of that at 34.6 percent.
Foreign travelers also stayed an average of 10.2 nights compared with 8.8 in 2019.
Hotel room rates have particularly risen in large cities.
The average daily rate of a two-guest room in August increased 88 percent from four years earlier in Kyoto and 77 percent in Tokyo’s 23 wards, according to figures from data analysis company Metro Engines Inc.
A representative of one hotel operating company said room reservations still fill up quickly even with the higher prices.
Yayoi Sakanaka, an economist at Mizuho Research and Technologies Ltd., said the industry is in an ideal environment where demand can be expanded even if room rates are raised.
But she said the mood to spend on travel that spread after the pandemic may shrink in the future.
The increase in travel expenditures could also stall if airline ticket prices remain high or the yen strengthens, Sakanaka added.
More foreign tourists, worker shortages fuel tourism troubles
July 20, 2023
Net profits at three megabanks reach record high level
November 15, 2023
Complaints roll in about higher hotel rates in subsidy program
October 11, 2022
Foreign tourist numbers rising, but not in all areas of Japan
June 22, 2023
Japanese remain reluctant to travel overseas amid high costs
April 20, 2023
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
