Chinese tourists spend "new three" in Japan

Late LatePost

2024-06-27 22:29LatePost official account

According to statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), in the first quarter of this year, Chinese mainland tourists to Japan totaled 1.328 million, down nearly 40% compared with the same period in 2019. However, the per capita expenditure of tourists increased by 25.1% from before the epidemic to 273,000 yen (about 11,400 yuan).

Among them, shopping alone, the average mainland tourist buys 10,124 yen (about 460 yuan) more goods each time he goes to Japan. But people's favorite things are also changing. From smart toilet seats and rice cookers around 2015, to today's luxury goods and pearls.

In the first quarter of this year, LVMH's sales in Asia excluding Japan fell by 6%, but sales in Japan increased by more than 30%, one of the important reasons is that more Chinese are running to Japan to buy LV.

Japanese pearl prices have also soared, and pearl brands Mikimoto and Tasaki are starting to gain traction among more Chinese consumers. The sales of Japanese cosmeceutical brands in China have been affected by the nuclear wastewater incident, but consumers who are willing to travel to Japan generally do not care about this and still buy Japanese cosmeceuticals.

Consumers are driven by the scarcity and value for money of goods that are only available locally or cheaper than domestically.

Ten years ago, Chinese people liked to buy Japanese toilet seats and rice cookers, but now they can easily find domestic alternatives, and Japanese brands such as TOTO and Panasonic have also opened new factories in China to produce more cost-effective local market goods.

Ten years later, the yen depreciated sharply, making it very cost-effective to buy luxury goods in Japan. Counting the 10% consumption tax refund and the yen exchange rate, buying an LV bag with a domestic regular price of 20,000 yuan in Japan last month can be cheaper by four or five thousand yuan.

Changes in consumer goods are also related to the structure and preferences of people traveling to Japan. In 2011, Chinese's per capita GDP exceeded $5,000 for the first time, and since then, the number of outbound tourists has increased by tens of millions per year, leaving the impression that the world likes to "buy, buy, buy". Now some people are still willing to go out, and some people are more inclined to travel domestically. The change in the tourist crowd is reflected in the consumption structure.

In the first quarter of this year, each Chinese tourist spent an average of 6.9 days in Japan, an extra full day than before the pandemic. The largest increase in all expenses was in entertainment, which increased by 66% from 2019 to about RMB577. (Qiu Hao)

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