Foreign hotel stays in Fukushima Prefecture more than doubled to 17,700 in January, marking the highest year-on-year growth among all prefectures, according to Japan Tourism Agency statistics released in March.
Fukushima Prefectural Government officials attribute the robust growth, up roughly 2.4 times from the same month the previous year, to local efforts to work with neighboring prefectures, including Miyagi and Yamagata, to promote tours aimed at people from Taiwan and Thailand, among other places.
It is the first time the monthly figure for foreign lodgers in Fukushima has represented the highest growth in Japan since comparable tourism data became available in 2010.