Bulgari Hotel to Open First Hotel in Japan, Anticipating Post-Covid Demand

In April, Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, an affiliate of the luxury Italian jewelry brand, will open its first Japanese branch in the 39th to 45th floors of Tokyo Midtown Yaesu, a high-rise building near Tokyo Station. The hotel is expected to offer the highest accommodation rates in Japan, aiming to attract wealthy people from Japan and abroad. In Japan, a rush of luxury hotels, including Bulgari, have begun to open in anticipation of increased demand after the Covid disaster.

The number of tourists visiting Japan reached 31.88 million in 2007, and their consumption amounted to approximately 4.8 trillion yen, or about 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP). However, this has almost disappeared due to entry restrictions following the Covid-19 disaster. The tourism industry has a wide range of related industries, including accomodation, transportation, and retail, each of which was broadly affected by the disaster.

However, the easing of border control measures was finally started from 2010, and the number of visitors to Japan recovered to 930,000 in November 2010, about 40% of the number three years earlier. The recovery of tourism is also expected to contribute to the recovery of the Japanese economy.

The rapid depreciation of the yen over the past six months has had a negative impact on many industries in the energy and food sectors, but the tourism industry is expected to provide an opportunity to gain foreign currency.

The government has made attracting tourists to Japan a pillar of its growth strategy, and has set a goal of increasing the number of visitors to Japan to 60 million in 30 years.

(source) https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/20230118-OYT1T50018