Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Calls For Measures To Revive Inbound Tourism
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has instructed his Cabinet ministers to quickly develop measures to revive the country's inbound tourism.
Kishida held a meeting with tourism-related ministers on Tuesday to discuss ways to boost Japan's travel demand.
The move comes as the government lifted most COVID border controls, and launched a nationwide discount campaign to kick-start tourism for people living in Japan.
At the meeting, Kishida said he aims to set an annual target of 5 trillion yen, or about 34 billion dollars, in inbound tourism spending.
Kishida noted the weakening yen will help boost the spending power of overseas travelers.
He asked relevant ministers to draw up a policy package for quick recovery, ahead of economic stimulus measures to be compiled by the end of this month.
Kishida also instructed the ministers to revise the country's tourism promotion basic plan by the end of this fiscal year, which ends in March.
The plan includes numerical targets for overseas visitors to Japan and their expenditures. The revision of the plan had been put on the shelf due to the coronavirus pandemic.