'日여행 안 가기 운동' 여파…7월 방일 한국인 7.6% 감소<br /><br />South Koreans have been cancelling plans to travel to Japan... as part of a growing boycott of the country because of the trade issue.<br />Our Won Jung-hwan looks at what impact this is having on the Japanese tourism industry.<br />Tourism is an increasingly important sector of the Japanese economy,… but it could be in trouble.<br />According to Japanese government data on Wednesday,… the number of South Korean tourists visiting Japan fell 7-point-6-percent in July from a year earlier.<br />That was the lowest figure since September 2018, when flooding from a typhoon closed Kansai airport and a strong earthquake struck Hokkaido.<br />And Korea's boycott has hit rural destinations hard too.<br />Only 30-thousand people live on Japan's Tsushima Island, but over 4-hundred-thousand South Korean visited the island last year.<br />But this year is a different story.<br />Some local hotels and restaurants which were crowded with Korean tourists are now virtually empty.<br />"Normally 500 people are booked every month,… but as you can see, there are only 10 people booked."<br />"Almost none. I think it will continue for a while,… it is getting worse and worse."<br />This trend is also similar for places in Kyushu and for Tottori Prefecture,… where Koreans had been the largest group of foreign tourists.<br />And the travel boycott has gone on for almost 2 months now,... going against claims by Japanese leaders that it won't last long.<br />"Many Koreans like Japanese animation, fashion, and food,… I doubt it will last long"<br />The mood inside Japan, which used to ignore the boycott by Koreans, now seems to be changing.<br />With such sluggish business,… some travel agencies in Hokkaido are even arranging welcoming events just for Korean travelers,… trying everything to get their rural economy back and running.<br />Last year, 7-point-5 million Korean tourists in Japan spent about 5-point-5 billion U.S. dollars, with most of it going toward lodging and shopping.<br />But many industry experts say that Japan's efforts are coming too late and the fall in visitors this July is just the beginning of a much larger drop in tourist numbers.<br />The fall in July only really came from some cancelations of already booked tours,... but since then, there seems to have been few new bookings from Koreans.<br />Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.<br />
