Relaxed visa rules fuel tourist numbers in Osaka
China Daily | Updated: 2019-03-13 07:20
OSAKA/TOKYO - Osaka, long Japan's "second city", is winning the race against Tokyo to draw foreign tourists, but its retailers and property developers are adapting to shifting tourism spending patterns.
Inbound tourism to Osaka surged fivefold between 2012 and 2017, faster than visits to Tokyo, as the city lured low-cost carriers and promoted itself as a base to visit the 25 World Heritage sites in nearby Kyoto and Nara.
Initially, developers and retailers scrambled to build new hotels, expand floor space, and install cashless payment systems like Alipay and WeChat to keep up with the sudden influx of big-spending tourists, mostly from China.
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