69
ANNUAL REPORT 2015
FRASERS HOSPITALITY TRUST
KOBE
Tourism Market
As the capital city of Hyogo
Prefecture, Kobe is the fifth largest
city in Japan with a population
of 1.5 million. It is a government
designated economic growth city
which retains an important role in
the nation’s economy. Currently
the tourism market of Kobe is riding
the wave of dramatically increasing
foreign visitation to Japan, including
the Kansai Region where Kobe is
located.
Mainly driven by the Japanese
government’s currency policy and
visa facilitation efforts, the number
of foreign visitors in Japan has
continuously achieved new records.
According to Japan National
Tourism Organisation (JNTO), for
YTD August 2015, a historical high of
12.9 million visitors were recorded,
up by 49.1% from the same period
in 2014. The Japanese government
aims to attract 20 million annual
foreign visitors by 2020, when Tokyo
hosts the Summer Olympics and
Paralympics, but it is expected that
this goal will be achieved ahead of
the target year.
Meanwhile, the Kansai region,
which contains the three major
cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe,
is well known as the second most
popular destination after Tokyo.
It is experiencing an even sharper
increase in international tourists
compared to the capital, partially
due to Kansai International Airport’s
efforts to attract more low cost
carriers (LCCs). Currently Kansai
Airport has 150 LCC flights a week,
the highest number of LCC flights
among all Japanese airports. In
2014, Kansai Airport welcomed 7
million inbound arrivals, becoming
the first major airport in Japan with
higher international arrivals volume
than Japanese outbound tourists. In
order to increase handling capacity,
the airport has announced that they
will build a new terminal dedicated
for international LCCs by 2017.
Under such favourable
circumstances, most tourism
statistics are showing improvements
for Hyogo Prefecture and Kobe
City. According to the Japan
Tourism Agency (JTA), the number
of overnight visitors in Hyogo
Prefecture recorded 13.4 million in
2014 with a 2.8% growth over 2013.
For the same period the prefectural
capital, Kobe, welcomed 3.6 million
over night visitors, 4.5% less than
2013. Among all overnight visitors,
4.9% were international arrivals,
representing a 34.3% increase for
Hyogo Prefecture. For Kobe City,
8.4% were international visitors
representing an impressive 13.8%
annual increase.
In 2015, the tourism market has seen
very strong visitor arrival growth. In
YTD July 2015, Kobe City welcomed
2.2 million overnight visitors, up
by 11.8% compared to the same
period in 2014, while foreign visitors
increased drastically to 305,000 with
a 71.3% growth on the same period
last year, and expanded the share
of total visitors to 13.7%. However,
compared with the foreign visitor
numbers to Osaka (2 million) and
Kyoto (934,000), the volume of
foreign visitation is still low and has
potential to improve further.
Among the foreign visitors in Hyogo
Prefecture, approximately 80% are
from nearby Asian countries. In
2014, the top five countries with the
most number of visitors were Taiwan
(30.9%), China (19.9%), Hong Kong
MARKET OVERVIEW
