Aug 21 (Japan Times) - Consumption by inbound tourists in Japan has started picking up as retailers and the tourism industry encourage spending on unique experiences and personal items, rather than souvenirs.
Department store operators had been ringing up big sales from foreign tourists, especially Chinese travelers, in a phenomenon that came to be known as "bakugai," or explosive shopping, in which they snapped up products such as home appliances for families and friends.
According to the Japan Tourism Agency, travel-related spending, including hotel and meal charges, by foreign tourists totaled ¥1.08 trillion in the April-June period, a quarterly record.
Of that total, spending on shopping grew 15 percent from the year before to ¥414.6 billion.
But spending per person dropped 5 percent to ¥57,420, sharply lower than the ¥77,000 for April-June 2015, when bakugai demand was brisk.
The figures suggest that a fall in the amount of per-visitor spending has been more than offset by growth in the number of overall foreign visitors to Japan, industry sources said.
