Japan, as a leading industrial nation, is the number one generator of travelers in the entire Pacific. Quite naturally the Japanese frequent the countries close to home: The Republic of China, Korea, and Hong Kong. Japanese men are fond of group tours that involve girls as entertainment. Korea tried banning prostitution, mostly patronized by the Japanese; tourism fell drastically, and the ban was removed.
Hong Kong, a world trade center in the Far East, is on lease from Mainland China, countenanced by China for its own convenience. Only 404 square miles, this British Crown Colony really a city-state contains more than five million people, mostly Chinese. It sports some of the world’s finest hotels built on some of the world’s most expensive land.
One reason that travel within and to the Pacific Basin countries is growing more rapidly than world travel in general is that about 65 percent of the world’s population lives in the countries bordering the Basin. Mainland China alone has a billion people and is vigorously building new hotels and seeking more foreign exchange brought by visitors. In just a few years tourism has become one of the country’s largest sources of foreign exchange. Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore are world financial centers. Japan, third largest industrial nation, after the U.S. and Russia, has a middle class eager for travel. New Zealanders and Australians have the money and urge for travel. Korea and Taiwan are rapidly industrializing and Mainland China is opening up to the outside world. For every one U.S. tourist visiting Asia, two Asian tourists visit the United States.
FYI, HK hasn’t been on lease since it was returned to China in 1997.