Japan positions itself as hassle-free Chinese New Year destination
E-payments, easy car rentals aimed at spurring tourist spending
TSUBASA SURUGA, Nikkei staff write
Japanese businesses are hoping to encourage
more spending by Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year period this
year.
TOKYO -- The Lunar New Year travel season is
underway in China, and Japanese companies are hoping to wring more cash
out of the tourists that come their way. One strategy is to make
shopping and sightseeing in Japan as effortless as possible.
Though
Japan saw a record 24 million foreign visitors in 2016, each traveler
from China spent an average of 231,504 yen ($2,010), down 18.4% on the
year. That was the steepest decrease for any nationality and put Chinese
spending behind that of Australians.
Chinese account for more than a quarter of Japan's total visitors; from a business standpoint, getting them to spend is crucial.
Last
year, Chinese tourists to Japan began to shy away from shopping sprees
on luxury goods and electronics. A stronger yen was one factor. The
higher customs fees and import taxes Beijing imposed last April did not
help, either.
But Japan is welcoming more repeat visitors
and middle-income travelers. And when it comes to cheaper household
goods, food and drinks, however, demand remains resilient.
Companies
are looking to make the most of that demand. To ease the hassle of cash
payments, for instance, convenience store chain Lawson on Tuesday
started accepting payments through Alipay, the mobile wallet app from
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba. The move -- a first for the Japanese
convenience store sector -- applies to all 13,000 Lawsons in the
country.
"In
Chinese culture, people don't necessarily open their wallets every time
they shop," Lawson Chairman and CEO Genichi Tamatsuka said at a launch
ceremony. Paying with Alipay is as simple as having the sales clerk scan
a bar code on your smartphone screen.
Alipay is China's
top wallet app, with more than 450 million active users and an 80% share
of the market. It is a big market, too: According to BigData Research,
China's mobile payments, worth 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.35 trillion) in
2015, are expected to hit 15 trillion yuan in 2017.
New priorities
Shopping,
though, is no longer at the top of Chinese tourists' to-do lists in
Japan. Instead, those lists are topped by visiting natural sites,
soaking in hot springs and viewing cherry blossoms or autumn leaves,
according to a report published last October by JTB Tourism Research
& Consulting
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