Japanese government wants to build luxury resorts in all national parks for foreign tourists

Wants plan completed in time to celebrate 100th anniversary of Japan’s national park system.

The Japanese travel sector is booming, and on Friday Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with ministry heads to discuss plans to keep that momentum going. One of the ideas they’ve come up with though, is probably going to be divisive, as Kishida has said that the government will be pushing for the development of luxury resort hotels in all 35 of Japan’s national parks.

The plan comes in the wake of statistics showing that in the first half of 2024, Japan has received 17.7 million inbound foreign travelers, more than it has ever had for the period. However, the majority of that inbound tourism is concentrated in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, and the government wants to start funneling more tourism traffic to other parts of Japan.

In and of itself, attempting to shine a spotlight on more rural areas isn’t a bad idea. In addition to being Japan’s largest and third-largest cities, Tokyo and Osaka are also the major entry points for international flights into Japan. It’s not easy to convince foreign travelers to get off the plane in Tokyo or Osaka, then go to the trouble of hopping on a train and spending the time and money to transfer to a comparatively smaller big city, such as Nagoya or Kobe. If travelers are interested in the big-city experience in Japan, it stands to reason that they’re going to want to experience the biggest one they can. Since it’s going to be almost impossible to directly compete with the metropolitan marvel of Tokyo and Osaka, or the culturally dense temple-and-shrine-studded cityscape of Kyoto, it makes sense to try to promote places in Japan where the appeal is the exact opposite: natural beauty and tranquility.

▼ Minami Alps National Park, which straddles Nagano, Shizuoka, and Yamanashi prefectures

The question, though, becomes why do this by building luxury resorts at national parks? The obvious answer is because the Japanese government thinks foreign tourists can, and will, pay for luxuries while traveling in Japan. The yen is currently at a historic low versus foreign currencies, and that favorable-to-foreigners exchange rate has been translating to big spending, in yen terms, by inbound travelers. Ostensibly Kishida and the cabinet believe that national park scenery and luxury accommodations will be an attractive combination for foreign tourists, who won’t particularly mind, or perhaps even really notice, the high in-yen prices.

▼ Yakushima National Park in Kagoshima Prefecture

It’s worth noting that luxury lodging in rural areas isn’t a completely foreign concept in Japan. With so much of the population living in urban areas, an elegantly relaxing weekend in the countryside, particularly if the hotel has its own hot spring baths, has long been something that appeals to Japanese domestic travelers as well. Compared to, say, national parks in the U.S., national parks in Japan also tend to be more day-tripper-oriented, with many visitors staying in inns or hotels around the park perimeter rather than camping within park grounds.

However, a government-backed push to build new resorts in each and every one of the country’s national parks, specifically in order to capitalize on inbound foreign travelers with fat stacks of yen, may not go over so well at a time when average real wages for Japanese residents has been dropping for the last 26 months in a row, the worst slump in over 30 years. Nevertheless, Kishida says he would like to see the new luxury resorts up and running by 2031, the 100th anniversary of the formation of Japan’s national park system.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/TV Tokyo Biz, TV Tokyo Biz, Nitele News
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Wikipedia/Alpsdake, Wikipedia/Σ64
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