Local News

The Kyushu District Transport Bureau released statistics showing that the number of overnight lodgers in Kyushu in the January – March quarter totaled roughly 7.70 million people, a 3.7% rise from the previous year. This exceeds the national increase of 2.4% during the same period. This was attributed to a sharp increase in tourists from South Korea, which account for 60% of the region’s foreign tourists. The number of South Korean tourists soared by 2.4 times, resulting in a 68.5% year-on-year increase in foreign tourists. The bureau said the depreciation of the won had settled, and tourism from South Korea returned to normal levels.