Q.What do inbound visitors spend the most on?
Published 2026-06-18
Answer
In 2024, inbound visitors spent a record ¥8.14 trillion in Japan. By category, lodging was the largest at 33.6%, followed by shopping (29.5%) and food & drink (21.5%). Spending per person was about ¥227,000 (JTA, 2024).
Inbound spending hit ¥8.1tn in 2024 — and lodging led the way
According to the Japan Tourism Agency's "Consumption Trends of International Visitors to Japan" (2024 calendar year), inbound travel spending reached ¥8.14 trillion — up 53.4% year on year and 69.1% above the pre-pandemic 2019 level, a record for any calendar year. Spending per visitor was about ¥227,000. By category, lodging was the single largest, accounting for 33.6% of the total.
8.14trillion yen — inbound travel spending in 2024 (record high)
227,000yen of travel spending per inbound visitor
33.6%lodging — the largest spending category
The breakdown: lodging, shopping and food make up over 80%
The full breakdown is shown below. The top three categories — lodging, shopping and food & drink — together make up over 80% of the total. Transport was 10.7%, and entertainment & services (theme parks, experiences, etc.) was 4.8%. All figures are JTA 2024 calendar-year values.
| Category | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Lodging | ¥2.74tn | 33.6% |
| Shopping | ¥2.40tn | 29.5% |
| Food & drink | ¥1.75tn | 21.5% |
| Transport | ¥867bn | 10.7% |
| Entertainment & services | ¥389bn | 4.8% |
Food is only #3 in spending — but the #1 reason to come
Food & drink is only the third-largest category at 21.5% — but spending size and motivation are two different things. In the same JTA survey, the most common thing visitors looked forward to before their trip was "eating Japanese food" (about 82%), ahead of "shopping" (about 63%) as the single biggest reason to visit. So food, while mid-ranked in spending, is the strongest hook at the entrance to the trip.
21.5%food & drink share of inbound spending
82%expected to eat Japanese food before the trip (#1)
63%expected shopping (#2)
Nara's homework is lodging — escaping the day-trip pattern
Lodging is the biggest inbound spending category (33.6%). Yet Nara is known as a day-trip, pass-through destination with relatively few places to stay. In 2024, overnight stays in Nara Prefecture reached a record 3,296,688 (Nara Prefecture lodging survey, up 12.2% year on year) — but that is still small on a national scale. As long as visitors sleep in Kyoto or Osaka and only day-trip to Nara, the largest spending category slips away. Extending the length of stay is Nara's homework. Start with the datasets below to see Nara's lodging and visitor trends for yourself.