Japan, China, ROK Hold First Trilateral Tourism Summit Since 2019; They Jointly Agree to Boost International Travelers to 40 Million by 2030

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:47 JST, September 12, 2024

KOBE — A two-day trilateral ministerial meeting between Japan, China and South Korea concluded in Kobe on Wednesday with a joint declaration that they all intend to increase the number of travelers between their nations to 40 million by 2030.

This was the first such trilateral meeting since 2019, after a five-year hiatus triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The three countries agreed on a plan to lift cross-border visitor numbers above pre-pandemic levels through a range of efforts, including strengthened trinational cooperation to attract more tourists to regional areas.

The joint declaration included an agreement to increase the sharing of tourism-related data. The three nations will strengthen tourism initiatives that take advantage of major events, such as the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. Exchanges between regional cities in the nations will be boosted and direct flights to regional areas will be increased in a bid to encourage more travelers to visit those areas. Travel across all three countries will be promoted to visitors from Europe and the United States.

The three nations agreed on stepping up measures against the growing problem of overtourism, such as sharing concrete examples experienced in each country. “Building relationships of trust among all three nations through tourist exchanges will become a foundation supporting stable development in East Asia in the future,” Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito said at a press conference on the day.

Overseas travel plunged during the pandemic but has bounced back in many nations. The U.N. World Tourism Organization forecasts that global international tourist numbers in 2024 will be 2% higher than they were in 2019.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, a record-high 3.13 million international visitors came to Japan in June. Travelers from China and South Korea accounted for over 40% of this figure. About 700,000 visitors from South Korea arrived in Japan in June, well above the about 610,000 visitors who came that month in 2019, before the pandemic struck.

However, the number of Chinese visitors was 660,000, only about 70% of the pre-pandemic level. The slowdown of China’s economy and delays in resuming direct flights between Japan and China are thought to be factors behind the sluggish rebound.

Each nation wants to attract more foreign tourists because their spending leads to greater economic activity, but it is difficult to implement measures that increase the number of their own citizens who travel abroad. Beijing and Seoul have pressed Tokyo to boost the number of Japanese going on trips overseas, which has remained at about 60% of pre-pandemic levels.

The nations varied in how they approached this meeting. China’s representative was only a vice minister. The joint declaration stipulated the three nations would share data essential for formulating tourism strategies, but the Chinese government does not publish breakdowns of which countries visitors to China come from, so it remains unclear just how effective the declaration will be.