A 90% decrease from the previous year: Tsushima concept- government support for a drastic decrease in Korean tourists

 Recently Asahi Shimbun Digital reported the following:

朝日新聞デジタル

前年の９割減も 対馬念頭、韓国人観光客激減を政府支援

 朝日新聞社 2019/12/13 00:50

　日韓関係悪化で韓国からの観光客が激減した長崎県対馬市を念頭に、政府が支援に乗り出す。「特定市場からの観光客の割合が高い観光地」を対象に、幅広い国や地域からの誘客を図るという異例のテコ入れ策だ。観光庁と内閣府が旅行商品の販路開拓や観光資源づくりなどを助成する方針で、１３日に閣議決定する補正予算案に盛り込む。

　対馬市は、韓国・釜山の南東５０キロに位置する人口約３万人の離島。２０１８年の訪日客約４１万人は、ほぼすべて韓国から。観光は地域経済の大きな柱だ。

　だが、韓国大法院（最高裁）が昨年１０月、元徴用工らへの賠償を日本企業に命じた判決をきっかけに日韓関係は悪化。日本が韓国向け輸出品の規制を強化した今夏以降では、対馬への韓国人客は大幅に落ち込み、１１月は対前年同月比９割減。１～１１月でみても２５万人にとどまり、市は国に支援を求めていた。

　こうした事態を打開するため、観光庁が訪日客を、内閣府が日本人客を増やす取り組みを支援し、補正予算にそれぞれ２・５億～３億円を盛り込む。予算計上に際して、観光庁は対馬以外も対象になる可能性があるとしている。内閣府は事業目的を住民がいる国境離島の地域社会の維持と位置づけている。

　具体的には、外国人の有識者を地域に招き、多言語の案内文や交通アクセスといった受け入れ環境のほか、地域が持つ観光資源などを調査。どの国・地域や客層を狙って旅行商品を今後売り込むかなどの戦略づくりを支援する。新たな観光資源づくりや、ＳＮＳでの発信力を持つ「インフルエンサー」や旅行会社を招き、地域を宣伝してもらう取り組みなども支える。（及川綾子）

Translation

The government will start to support Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture, in considering that tourists from South Korea had drastically decreased due to deterioration of Japan-Korea relations. This was an unusual supporting strategy to attract customers from a wide range of countries and regions, targeting “tourism destinations with a high percentage of tourists from specific markets”. The Japan Tourism Agency and the Cabinet Office would subsidize the development of travel product’s sales channels and tourism resources, which would be included in the revised budget draft to be finalized by the Cabinet on the 13th. 　

Tsushima City was a remote island with a population of about 30,000 located 50 kilometers southeast of Busan, South Korea. Nearly 410,000 visitors to Japan in 2018 were from Korea. Tourism was a major pillar of the local economy.

However, Korea-Japan relations deteriorated in response to a ruling in October last year that the Korean Grand Court (Supreme Court) ordered a Japanese company to compensate the former workers. Since this summer, when Japan had tightened restrictions on exports to South Korea, the number of Korean customers in Tsushima fell significantly, with a 90% drop in November compared with the previous year. In January-November it was only 250,000 people, and the city sought assistance from the country.

To overcome this situation, the Japan Tourism Agency might support efforts to increase the number of Japanese customers and the Cabinet Office would include 250 million to 300 million yen in the supplementary budget. When budgeting, the Japan Tourism Agency said there was a possibility of targets other than Tsushima. The Cabinet Office positioned its project purpose as maintaining local communities on remote islands that had inhabitants.

Specifically, foreign experts would be invited to the area to investigate the visitor accepting environment such as multilingual guides and traffic access, as well as the tourism resources of the area. They would support the development of strategies such as in the future over which countries / regions and customers should they targeted their travel products. They also supported initiatives such as creating new tourism resources and inviting “Influencer” and travel agencies with the ability to communicate through SNS to promote local communities.         (Ayako Oikawa)

       

          So, tourism in Japan is affected by its poor relationship with Korea.