Foreign visitors to Japan's Osaka hits record 11.11 million in 2017

TOKYO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Foreign visitors to Japan's Osaka Prefecture hit a record 11.11 million tourists in 2017, the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau said Wednesday.

According to the bureau, figure for 2017 inbound tourist to the western prefecture marked the first time that visitors have topped the 10 million line, with numbers jumping 18 percent from a year earlier.

The head of the bureau Hiroshi Mizohata was quoted as saying that the increased foot flow from foreign tourists was due to promotion efforts made by both public and private sectors and that Osaka's profile has been rising among foreigners.

The prefecture netted 1.19 trillion yen (10.74 billion U.S. dollars) from spending by tourists in the recording period, which was an increase of 311.7 billion yen (2.81 billion U.S. dollars) when compared to a year earlier, according to the bureau's figures.

Mizohata said that to further enhance tourists' spending, the prefecture needed to promote more nighttime entertainment spots, as well as sports, massage and beauty services and make sightseeing an around-the-clock proposition.

Visitors from Chinese mainland, South Korea, China's Taiwan and Hong Kong comprised the largest percentage of Osaka-bound tourists at around 77 percent of total visitors, with those from Chinese mainland topping the group with 4.02 million visitors.

Those from South Korea visiting the region showed a significant uptick in the recording period, with 2.41 million visitors, which was an increase of 53 percent on year and marked the largest increase of visitors from anywhere outside of Japan, the bureau said.

By 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the tourist bureau said it hopes that 13 million foreign tourists will visit the prefecture, with the region's Kansai International Airport's 24 hour operating services playing an important role in this target.

With tourism becoming one of the Japanese government's key economic drivers, the Japan Tourism Agency said Tuesday that the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan hit a record 28,690,000 in 2017, which was an increase of 19.3 percent compared to a year earlier.

Total spending by visitors to Japan rose to a record 4.42 trillion yen (39.91 billion U.S. dollars), with guests from Chinese mainland spending the most, followed by those from China's Taiwan and then tourists from South Korea.

The tourism agency noted that spending by Chinese visitors topped that of those visiting from the United States and European countries. Enditem