Regional impacts of international tourism boycott: A China—Japan conflict
Published online on April 14, 2026
Abstract
["Economic Inquiry, Volume 64, Issue 2, Page 409-433, April 2026. ", "\nAbstract\nWe examine the regional impacts of the Sino–Japan dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands that sparked a Chinese consumer boycott of travel to Japan from August 2012. This boycott caused significant and varied regional impacts across Japan. Prefectures that had higher pre‐boycott dependency on Chinese visitors, particularly tourists, experienced the largest negative effects. While the boycott's intensity was strongest in the first 6 months, substantial negative impacts were still observable when averaging across 24 months post‐boycott. Our results demonstrate the importance of diversification across traveler types and countries of origin in providing travel services to mitigate risks from political conflicts.\n"]