Visitors to Osaka Expo likely to exceed break-even line of 22 million
With the approach of the Oct. 13 closing of the World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka, visitor numbers are trending upward as last-minute visitors flock to the event.
Some five months after the opening, the cumulative number of general visitors to the Osaka Expo through Thursday reached around 18.54 million on a preliminary basis. The final total is expected to exceed the 22 million mark, regarded as the break-even point for operating costs, resulting in a projected surplus.
In the week to Thursday, the average number of visitors per day was about 177,000, up from about 153,000 in the previous week through Sept. 4. On Sept. 6, about 210,000 people visited the event, the largest number since the April 13 opening.
"Many people came to the Expo site even in the heat wave," Hiroyuki Ishige, secretary-general of the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, told a press conference on Monday. "We're very happy."
The association expects the peak number to be 227,000, but it is considering how many people it will accept at the maximum toward the end of the event.
The number of visitors to the 2005 Expo in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, reached about 22.05 million, far exceeding the target of 15 million.
Mitsuo Fujiyama, director of the Kansai Economic Research Centre at Japan Research Institute Ltd., expects the total number of visitors to the Osaka Expo to surpass 25 million if visitor numbers continue to rise at the same pace as the Aichi Expo until the end of the event. "The midsummer heat will ease from late September," leading to a further increase of visitors, Fujiyama said.
The operation costs of the Osaka Expo are put at 116 billion yen, of which 96.9 billion yen is planned to be covered by income from admission tickets. Cumulative ticket sales through Sept. 5 reached about 20.7 million tickets, far exceeding the 18 million mark considered the benchmark for profitability based on admission tickets. The association aims to achieve its target of 23 million tickets to prepare for unexpected expenses caused by typhoons and other events.
The visitor-only parking lot, which saw low utilisation rates at the start of the event, is expected to incur a deficit of up to 5 billion yen, according to a senior association official. However, strong sales of admission tickets and merchandise suggest that the final operating revenue will exceed 116 billion yen, the official added.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
