U.S. still tops Japanese popular destination list

U.S. still tops Japanese popular destination list

TOKYO (AFP): The United States was the top destination for Japanese travelers last year while Hong Kong replaced South Korea as the second most popular destination, a government report showed yesterday.

The annual report on tourism, compiled by the prime minister's office, showed the number of Japanese traveling to Italy, Hong Kong, Spain and Indonesia rising by more than 25 percent from the previous year.

Smaller increases were recorded for other countries among the top 20 destinations -- with the notable exceptions of South Korea and France, where the number of Japanese travelers dropped by around eight percent.

Overall, the number of Japanese traveling abroad grew eight percent to a record 16.69 million, the fifth increase in a row despite the weaker yen.

The report said 5.18 million Japanese traveled to the United States during the year, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, while 1.51 million went to Hong Kong, up 30.1 percent. But the number of Japanese travelers going to South Korea fell 8.2 percent to 1.44 million.

Elsewhere, numbers rose 17.7 percent to 1.02 million for China, 1.4 percent to 835,000 for Taiwan, 4.0 percent to 774,000 for Australia, 1.1 percent to 740,000 for Singapore and 15 percent to 694,000 to Thailand.

The report said Italy was the top European destination, attracting 478,000 travelers, up 30.3 percent. It was followed by Britain with 401,000, up 2.0 percent; Saipan with 392,000, up 4.4 percent; Indonesia with 384,000, up 27.4 percent, Canada with 348,000, up 10 percent; the Philippines with 308,000, up 8.5 percent and France with 307,000, down 7.4 percent.

Among other destinations, numbers rose 6.7 percent to 245,000 for Malaysia, 4.6 percent to 244,000 for Germany, 12.7 percent to 151,000 for New Zealand, 29.1 percent to 130,000 for Spain and 5.7 percent to 106,000 for Switzerland.

The report said the number of foreigners visiting Japan soared 15 percent to 3.84 million last year. South Koreans were the biggest group at 990,000 followed by Taiwanese at 720,000, U.S. still tops Japanese popular destination listAmericans at 590,000 and Chinese at 240,000.