Japan, China, South Korea agree to boost mutual travellers to 40 million by 2030

KOBE: A two day trilateral ministerial meeting between Japan, China and South Korea concluded in Kobe on Wednesday with a joint declaration that they...

KOBE: A two-day trilateral ministerial meeting between Japan, China and South Korea concluded in Kobe on Wednesday with a joint declaration that they all intend to increase the number of travelers between their nations to 40 million by 2030.

This was the first such trilateral meeting since 2019, after a five-year hiatus triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The three countries agreed on a plan to lift cross-border visitor numbers above pre-pandemic levels through a range of efforts, including strengthened trinational cooperation to attract more tourists to regional areas.

The joint declaration included an agreement to increase the sharing of tourism-related data. The three nations will strengthen tourism initiatives that take advantage of major events, such as the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. Exchanges between regional cities in the nations will be boosted, and direct flights to regional areas will be increased in a bid to encourage more travelers to visit those areas. Travel across all three countries will be promoted to visitors from Europe and the United States.

The three nations agreed on stepping up measures against the growing problem of overtourism, such as sharing concrete examples experienced in each country. "Building relationships of trust among all three nations through tourist exchanges will become a foundation supporting stable development in East Asia in the future," Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito said at a press conference on the day.

Overseas travel plunged during the pandemic but has bounced back in many nations. The U.N. World Tourism Organization forecasts that global international tourist numbers in 2024 will be 2% higher than they were in 2019.