Japan Sees First Tourism Drop Since 2013 on Quakes and Typhoon

(Bloomberg) -- The number of foreign tourists to Japan dropped for the first time in more than five years during September, as an earthquake and typhoon brought a temporary halt to travel in some of the country’s top destinations.

Tourist numbers fell 5.3 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. That’s the first year-on-year contraction since January 2013. Visitor numbers from China, which accounts for the biggest portion of Japan’s tourists, shrank 3.8 percent in September, while tourism from South Korea fell 14 percent.

Typhoon Jebi, the strongest tropical cyclone to strike Japan in 25 years, ripped through Osaka on Sept. 4, flooding the country’s third most-used airport and cancelling inbound flights for weeks. Just days later, a magnitude 6.7 quake struck Hokkaido in northern Japan, killing more than 40 people and knocking out power to the entire island. The twin blows to peak tourist destinations were the latest in a string of natural disasters from floods to heat waves that hit Japan this summer, something which had already weighed on tourist growth.

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