Chinese travellers shrug off diplomatic tensions, hotel bookings for Japan jump ahead of February Lunar New Year

Nikkei Asia reports that hotel bookings in Japan by Chinese travellers for the Lunar New Year holiday in February have risen sharply, despite a diplomatic row that prompted Beijing to advise citizens to avoid travelling to Japan.

Hotel booking platform Tripla, which covers 1,727 hotels in Japan, said bookings by Chinese travellers for February 15-23 were up 57% compared with the Lunar New Year period a year earlier.

Nikkei also surveyed 10 Japanese hotel operators as of December 15 about bookings for this year’s Lunar New Year. Only two reported a decline of around 10%—Tokyu Hotels & Resorts and the Imperial Hotel. Three operators reported higher bookings, with the Palace Hotel saying reservations had doubled from last year, while five said bookings were broadly unchanged.

Of the 10 operators, five reported higher average daily room rates. Tripla forecast the average room rate during the Lunar New Year period would rise to 22,004 yen (around 4,425 baht), up 21% from a year earlier.

China urged citizens to refrain from travelling to Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi commented in November 2025 on Taiwan, affecting travel thereafter. However, some analysts believe the impact will be more limited than in the past—such as in 2012, when Chinese arrivals in some months reportedly fell as much as 40%—because a larger share of Chinese visitors now travel independently rather than in organised tour groups, making them less influenced by government guidance.

Global real estate consultancy CBRE said in a report that the share of Chinese visitors travelling to Japan in tour groups—once about 50% of this market—has dropped to 15.6%, indicating inbound demand has become more resilient to shifts in diplomatic relations.

This year’s Lunar New Year holiday falls about three weeks later than in 2025, running February 15-23. While China’s advice may weigh on hotels that rely heavily on group tours, the Lunar New Year period typically sees a large number of last-minute bookings.

“It is still too early to judge,” a representative of Hankyu Hanshin Hotels was quoted as saying, reflecting a broader wait-and-see approach among operators.