Japan widens doors to Chinese
By Lu Feiran |
July 2, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
COLLEGE English teacher Sue Ye is now planning her long-delayed trip to Kyoto and Nara, after the Japanese government yesterday relaxed visa rules for Chinese nationals to encourage more tourists to visit and help boost Japan's flagging retail sector.
The Shanghai teacher said she hated to travel with tour groups, but because she couldn't meet the previous annual-income visa requirement, her wish of going to Japan remained unfulfilled for several years.
"And now I can make the specific plan, to decide whether to watch red leaves in fall or sakura in spring," Ye told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
Japan will now grant individual tourist visas to Chinese earning 60,000 yuan (US$8,846) or more per year, significantly less than the former lofty requirement of 250,000 yuan.
The revised income requirement will boost Japan-bound tours, travel agencies in Shanghai believe.
Ctrip.com, China's major online travel service company, said that since late May, Japan-bound individual bookings have risen by about 40 percent over previous months.
"Although the individual trip is not the mainstream of the Japan tour market (for Chinese tourists), it will grow fast," said Tang Yibo, supervisor of travel business department of the company.
At present, most Shanghai-Japan packages last four to six days and cost about 4,000 yuan, including airline tickets, tax and visa application fee.
Around 600,000 Chinese tourists visited Japan in the first five months of 2010, according to Xinhua news agency.
Japan's languishing economy is getting a lift from Chinese tourists who are eager to buy brand name goods from Canon digital cameras to Shiseido cosmetics.
Chinese tourists spend an average of 230,000 yen (US$2,600) per trip, a massive injection of capital into the retail sector. For many Chinese tourists, shopping is the most popular activity while in the Japanese capital of Tokyo.
Snapping up four Japanese luxury Seiko watches as if they were cheap chocolate souvenirs, a 36-year-old Chinese tourist plunked down US$4,500 in cash at a store in downtown Tokyo as an Associated Press reporter watched.
"One is for me, and the other is for my father. The rest are for my friends," Li Jun, a computer businessman from Shanghai, said.
"We want to buy Japanese products because they are known for very good quality," Li told the AP. "We are here for shopping, not for tourist activities."
Some Japanese companies estimate spending by Chinese tourists will jump nearly fourfold to 430 billion yen by 2012 from 120 billion yen in 2008.
Takeshi Araki, a salesman at electronics retailer Yodobashi Camera Co Ltd in Tokyo, told the AP: "Chinese are the saviors for us. I've never seen any foreign tourists spend as much as Chinese."
The Shanghai teacher said she hated to travel with tour groups, but because she couldn't meet the previous annual-income visa requirement, her wish of going to Japan remained unfulfilled for several years.
"And now I can make the specific plan, to decide whether to watch red leaves in fall or sakura in spring," Ye told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
Japan will now grant individual tourist visas to Chinese earning 60,000 yuan (US$8,846) or more per year, significantly less than the former lofty requirement of 250,000 yuan.
The revised income requirement will boost Japan-bound tours, travel agencies in Shanghai believe.
Ctrip.com, China's major online travel service company, said that since late May, Japan-bound individual bookings have risen by about 40 percent over previous months.
"Although the individual trip is not the mainstream of the Japan tour market (for Chinese tourists), it will grow fast," said Tang Yibo, supervisor of travel business department of the company.
At present, most Shanghai-Japan packages last four to six days and cost about 4,000 yuan, including airline tickets, tax and visa application fee.
Around 600,000 Chinese tourists visited Japan in the first five months of 2010, according to Xinhua news agency.
Japan's languishing economy is getting a lift from Chinese tourists who are eager to buy brand name goods from Canon digital cameras to Shiseido cosmetics.
Chinese tourists spend an average of 230,000 yen (US$2,600) per trip, a massive injection of capital into the retail sector. For many Chinese tourists, shopping is the most popular activity while in the Japanese capital of Tokyo.
Snapping up four Japanese luxury Seiko watches as if they were cheap chocolate souvenirs, a 36-year-old Chinese tourist plunked down US$4,500 in cash at a store in downtown Tokyo as an Associated Press reporter watched.
"One is for me, and the other is for my father. The rest are for my friends," Li Jun, a computer businessman from Shanghai, said.
"We want to buy Japanese products because they are known for very good quality," Li told the AP. "We are here for shopping, not for tourist activities."
Some Japanese companies estimate spending by Chinese tourists will jump nearly fourfold to 430 billion yen by 2012 from 120 billion yen in 2008.
Takeshi Araki, a salesman at electronics retailer Yodobashi Camera Co Ltd in Tokyo, told the AP: "Chinese are the saviors for us. I've never seen any foreign tourists spend as much as Chinese."
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