Japanese tourists to Britain declining fast
 

According to the Japan Times, the number of Japanese who are taking trips to Britain continues to decline as the economy falters and more Japanese choose to travel to nearby Asian countries.

Japan has taken the title of "fastest declining market" for the British tourist industry, according to an analysis of data over the last eight years. Japanese tourists made only 239,000 trips to Britain in 2008, compared to a high of 619,000 visits in 1995.

Visitor number of visitors to Britain from other European countries, such as France and Germany, have remained relatively stable over the last eight years, and the United States has seen a slight decline in visitor numbers. Britain has also seen a steady increase in visitor numbers from China over the last decade.

Source: Japan Times

Thank you.

We have the same situation with Japanese tourists here, although the Koreans are gaining due to the valuable possibilities of obtaining permanant resident visas.

I thought that the decrease to Australia had to do with some new hoops that they are making companies jump through to arrange group trips?
Back before there was some change in that department, it was pretty common for companies to take their company trips to Australia... Even my husband`s company did so and I went along. Last year they were planning on doing it again, but there was a huge amount of paperwork and such involved for arranging a company trip that hadn`t existed all the other times in the past. Instead, the trip went elsewhere.

I'm not suprised.. it sucks here.

Visa's always take up paperwork.

Where did they go?

I don`t know if it is a visa issue - I don`t think there were any big changes in the visa policy...
More like extra paperwork for a group entry - which is going to cut down travel significantly.

My husband`s company went to Cairns 6 years ago. They had been doing a 5 year cycle for Australia. I believe 11 years ago they went somewhere else (I want to say Darwin, but I am not 100% sure). Last year they were planning for Melbourne, but the trip was scrapped due to too much time required for paperwork - 8 months wasn`t enough, it seems.

When we were in Cairns, we rented a car and escaped the tourist trap and ended up driving down the coast. Not a big fan of tourist spots, and with me along there wasn`t too much worry about getting lost and having no way to communicate.

It's got me stumped:confused:

I finished working for Customs a few months agao at Cairns airport.

I've been in the hospitality industry prviously for eleven years.

No changes as far as I know:confused:

We still have all the larger and succesful Japanese tour compnaies here and they would usually look after the paperwork for Japanese tour groups.

We were getting a lot more Chinese, although it has slowed a little due to their economy.

Can't work out for the life of me what this paperwork is..

There are quite a lot of Japanese tourists here in Austria, especially Vienna.

Thats a shame - Britain is an amazing place for visitors - RULE BRITANNIA !!