As Japan comes off the heels of a record-breaking year for tourism, the Japan National Tourism Organization is focusing on managing client expectations, catering to specific travel groups and prioritizing off-the-beaten-path destinations. Travel Weekly's features editor, Emma Weissmann, spoke with Kay Allen, the JNTO's communications manager, about how Japan tourism is doing in 2026, visitor trends and what travel advisors should know about booking clients interested in seeing Japan during cherry blossom season.
Kay Allen
Q: How is tourism to Japan shaping up in 2026, when compared to 2025?
A: We did get our visitor numbers back from 2025, and in terms of how many visitors we had, we surpassed all previous records [with nearly 42.7 million visitors]. There are no signs that things are slowing down each month; it still seems to be surpassing the month before, which is really incredible. But it also comes with its own set of challenges. We are working to drive people off of the Golden Route [which includes Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Mount Fuji], because it is becoming sort of unsustainable in places like Kyoto.
Q: Does that mean that JNTO is prioritizing lesser-known regions or cities?
A: A lot of people are now moving into the Dragon Route, that kind of central area of Japan, to places like Hida Takayama, Kanazawa and Shirakawa-go. And now they're saying maybe we relax a little bit [there, too]. So now we're focusing on other areas, trying to really drive regional tourism to the countryside. We're trying to draw attention to indigenous cultures, because Japan is not as homogenous as people think it is. Everywhere that you go in Japan, you're going to find regional differences in the culture, in the way of speaking, in the foods that they eat and in the artwork that they create.
Q: Are there other trends that you're seeing, or interests from American travelers in regard to the types of experiences they're booking?
A: We're seeing a lot of growth in the adventure market. We've partnered for so long with the Adventure Travel Trade Association to help bring more awareness to that. I have seen a lot of growing interest in outdoor [experiences] and soft adventure, too.
Q: Are there any common misconceptions that travel advisors should be correcting with their clients?
A: I would caution advisors that they need to be managing their [clients'] expectations in terms of crowding during cherry blossom season, and the amount of time that they really need to be booking in advance in order to secure availability for the hotels that they want -- the experiences that they want, their bullet train tickets, things like that. Everybody thinks that you're limited to Tokyo and Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms, or even just that narrow window of the last week of March and the first week of April. And it's not like that at all, because they bloom south to north. So you can go earlier in the season and see cherry blossoms in southern Japan or go later and see them in northern Japan. You'll deal with less crowds, get off the beaten path and still have those beautiful cherry blossom experiences.
Q: What resources are available to travel advisors?
A: I would encourage them to reach out to us directly, and we're happy to help. Our office is very quick when it comes to responding to travel advisors and giving them as many resources as we can for their specific needs. We do have a trade page on our website, which has links to some video resources. The best thing I would say now is to register for our trade newsletter, because that's going to be the biggest resource for information.