After more than two years, one of the world’s most popular travel destinations reopened for tourists. Yet few, if any, came.
No exhausted-yet-exuberant travelers following a flag-carrying tour guide were spotted at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on June 10, when Japan officially reopened its borders and doubled the daily entry limit to 20,000 visitors. The Japanese National Tourism Organization said it doesn’t have any data on tour groups in the week since, and some tour operators have yet to begin their visits.
Last month, the government unveiled, with limited fanfare, an initiative to start letting in visitors and their spending money. The associated restrictions — including mandatory mask-wearing, temperature checks and limited free movement — as well as relatively short notice, appear to be making it difficult to plan for and attract visitors.