Weaker yen and relaxed visas make Japan a Chinese travel destination

A decline in the Japanese yen and relaxed visa rules for Chinese travellers has seen an increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan. In the first 11 months of the year, 18 million tourists visited Japan, of which 4.6 million were Chinese; during the Golden Week holidays in October around 400,000 Chinese tourists travel to Japan where they spent an estimated $830m in just seven days. Based on this increase in travellers from China, the Japanese Government has raised its 2020 target from 20 million to 30 million tourists per year.

A sharp decline in the Japanese yen and easier visa rules for Chinese travelers are driving tourists to the Land of the Rising Sun, with the country featuring heavily in holiday destinations lists this season.

"It's not just Tokyo...it's also also some of the smaller destinations in Japan like Kyushu, Fukuoka...A lot of this is also driven by the LCCs (low cost carriers). So the more the LCCs fly to the smaller destinations, that just opens up the market," Asia-Pacific vice president of Hotels.com, Abhiram Chowdhry, told CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday.

The USD/JPY is currently near 121, rising more than 10 percent after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) introduced easing measures in October last year.

The country also relaxed visa requirements for travelers from China from January this year.

The number of tourists to Japan has hit 18 million in the first 11 months of 2015—almost a 50 percent increase from the same period in 2014.