7% Decrease in the Number of International Tourists to Beppu City in 2008

 (Oita Godo Newspaper, February 14^th 2009, morning paper)

In 2008, the number of tourists from overseas who come over and stay at Beppu comprised of 227608 people. It has decreased by 7%, approximately 17200 tourists, compared to the number in 2007 (the highest in history). As the impact of Korean Won getting cheaper against Japanese Yen, there is a significant decrease of Korean tourists in Japan, and it has become the main reason of the decrease in the number of tourists coming to Beppu. Especially in December, the number of tourists had decreased greatly by 51.1% from the previous year's December's number.

With the cooperation from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, the data about the number of tourists from overseas was collected the 27 main hotels and ryokans.

From the period of January to May, the number of tourists who stay over increased. Comparing the first halves of the year, there was 9.3% increase compared to the previous year. However, after 15 months, the trend changed from increasing to decreasing, and still continued to decrease.

Analyzing based on the nationalities and areas, the largest number of tourists came from Korea, consisting of 178014 people which made up about 78.1% of the total number of tourists. In 2007, it was 29100 people, the first time for the number to exceed 200000 people. However, it decreased by 14.1%.

After Korea, the number of tourists from Taiwan is the second highest, 19980 people which increased by 22.9%. Next is Hongkong, with 5056 people and 22% increase. Following that are the tourists from the United States of America, comprising of 3176 people having increased by 87.2% from the previous year. It was estimated that the money spent within Beppu City was approximately 4,200,000,000 Yen.

To those providing accommodation and other facilities in Beppu tourism industry, the significant decrease of Korean tourists had been a severe blow. In a year, the decrease reached 20 to 30%. It was even attempted to give discount for Korean tourists in order to attract more Korean tourists.

In order to increase the number of international tourists, it was proposed that "In the future, we will look forward to differentiating our area more and improving the brand of our tourism resources more clearly".

Comment: It must be really a trying time for the tourism industry in Beppu City to have experienced such a drastic decrease in the number of tourists. Actually the impact of this financial crisis is not only felt by the tourism industry, but also other industries and the people also. Ganbatte Beppu!! This is the time for you to be creative and innovative in promoting your uniqueness.

NUGROHO Katarina Marsha Utama
Indonesia
APM2, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University