Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) foresees the number of tourists visiting Tokyo from India to grow by 16 per cent this year compared to last year. According to JNTO, Director Aya Hashimoto, in 2018 Japan witnessed 1,54,029 Indian travellers visiting the country.
Hashimoto said that Japan has already witnessed a 14.4 per cent rise in Indian visitors arrival to 1,49,300 during the period from January to October 2019.Most of the visitors were from major metros like New Delhi, Mumbai.
When asked about Japanese cities that are being promoted among Indian travellers, he said, the ‘Golden Route’ is a popular choice among tourists as it covers major cities like Tokyo, Hakone, Nara, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima.He added that the best time to visit Japan is in April-May or October and November.
He further said ‘Hokkaido’ is also a destination getting popular among Indian tourists as it offers powder snow and a range of snow activities like skiing and snowboarding.
To promote tourism among the Indian travellers, JNTO has organised Japan tourism expo for the first time in Chennai and have planned to carry out similar events in Bengaluru in February and in New Delhi before March 2020.
To tap the opportunity available here, he said All Nippon Airways commenced direct flights between Chennai and Tokyo.
To facilitate the travellers from India, All Nippon Airways ,a Tokyo- based airlines started operation connecting Chennai and Tokyo on 27th October.Apart from this route, ANA is operating between New Delhi and Tokyo. Also Japan Airlines has plan to operate a flight between Bengaluru and Tokyo.
As said by Hashimoto as of now there are about 2,300 Indian hotels in Japan. They have also plan to encourage the availability of Indian food to Indian tourists during their visit Japan
