Foreign visitors to Japan this year will increase 8.7 percent from last year to 5.14 million, thanks to the World Cup soccer finals that kick off in May, the nation's largest travel agency predicted Tuesday.
On the other hand, JTB Corp. said it expects lingering adverse effects from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the continuing domestic economic slump to put a crimp in the number of Japanese traveling abroad.
According to JTB's estimates, the number of Japanese overseas travelers fell 9.1 percent in 2001 from the previous year to 16.2 million in the aftermath of the September attacks.
JTB expects only a 2.7 percent rebound from last year to 16.64 million.
It predicted that demand from corporate customers will remain sluggish this year, although the number of trips by individual overseas travelers is rapidly recovering and that segment should make recovery by the Golden Week holiday period spanning late April to early May.
Meanwhile, domestic tourists will remain at almost the same level of 323.49 million for this year, down 0.5 percent from last year, JTB said.