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Wednesday, 21st August 2013
In Japan Travel News,
Tourist arrivals in Japan rebound
The first six months of 2013 looks like it has been reasonably strong for Japanese tourism, with new figures showing arrivals to the country were higher than expected.
Data published by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) revealed that approximately five million people had touched down in Japan between January and June.
The organisation stated that Japan is "rebounding at a much faster rate than expected", with a growing number of travellers coming from Thailand.
It looks as though Thailand will become an important market for Japanese tourism, with 53 per cent growth in arrivals from this destination recorded already this year.
As of July 1st 2013, Thai nationals no longer need to apply for a visa to visit Japan on trips of 15 days or less. PATA believes this will result in a further increase in Thai travellers jetting off to Japan.
Arrivals in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole are up compared to 2012, with eight million more people visiting the area in the first six months of 2013 than in the same period a year earlier.
Written by Mark Smith
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