Chinese invasion offers a ray of hope to tourist trade

An influx of free-spending Chinese tourists following a relaxation of visa rules in July is expected to pump hundreds of billions of yen into the Japanese economy.

A group of 17 Japanese and Chinese tourism and retail companies estimated Chinese tourists would bring about 430 billion yen ($4.67 billion) into the Japanese economy in 2012, compared with 120 billion yen in 2008.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada announced Tuesday that individual visitors from China would only be required to have an annual income of 60,000 yuan (about 800,000 yen) or possess a "gold" credit card from July. The current rules insist on a 250,000-yuan income.

Families of government or large corporation workers will also be allowed in as individual tourists. Others will still have to visit as part of group tours.

Japan's tourism industry and retailers, which have increasingly focused on Chinese trade in recent years, are scrambling to ensure they can cash in on the expected spike in visitors.

The Prince Hotel Group accommodated about 110,000 Chinese guests in fiscal 2009, up about 50 percent from fiscal 2008.

With overall guest numbers falling, the group says it regards Chinese visitors as a "crucial market."

It plans to triple its number of Chinese-speaking staff over five years and increase the number of hotels offering Chinese-language television broadcasts in guest rooms from nine to 45 by the end of fiscal 2010.

Chinese people's big spending has been catching the attention of stores, who are hiring Chinese-speaking sales clerks and adding Chinese-language signs to their stores.

The Matsuya department store in Tokyo's posh Ginza district has hired eight Chinese and is considering special services for Chinese high rollers.

"The amount of money a Chinese person is spending is incomparable to that of a Japanese customer," Seichi Iioka, senior director of the Japan Department Stores Association, told a news conference Tuesday.

A major factor behind the Chinese spending spree is the China Union Pay debit card, which allows visitors to pay directly from their bank accounts in China. There is a cap on the amount of foreign currency Chinese people can take overseas.

The card was first introduced through a tie-up with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. in 2005. The number of China Union Pay member outlets has risen to about 17,000, and sales via the debit card climbed to about 24 billion yen in fiscal 2009, up from about 4 billion yen in fiscal 2007.

All Nippon Airways Co. says Chinese visitors traveling on group tours on its flights have shot up roughly 40 percent since autumn following a promotion campaign in China.

More than half of them fly to Hokkaido, where part of the popular 2008 Chinese movie "If You Are the One" was set. That raises domestic passenger numbers as well as international ticket sales. The airline is working on a new marketing campaign to draw more Chinese.

Kinki Nippon Tourist Co., a major travel agency, is aiming to double sales of tours to Chinese people in 2010 from a year before. That would raise the Chinese market's share of the company's Asian business from 15 percent to 20 percent.

JTB Corp., another leading travel agency, recently began promoting its tours on a Chinese travel website that attracts 10 million individual visitors a month.

Meanwhile, Japanese immigration authorities are gearing up for the new visa rules.

"We have to remain as alert as ever because illegal entrants are using more sophisticated methods," a senior immigration official said.

The National Police Agency has insisted on continuing the annual income and social status requirements in the visa regulations because of concerns about Chinese disappearing in the middle of tours of Japan to find illegal employment.

Overseas visitors are becoming an increasingly important part of the Japanese economy. The Japan Tourism Agency has estimated that by more than tripling the number of foreign visitors in 2009 to 25 million people in 2019, Japan could gain 14 trillion yen in direct and indirect economic benefits and could create 820,000 jobs.

Asian countries, including China, are expected to fuel much of the increase.