The Cherry Blossom Business

Cherry Blossom season in Japan is a huge cultural and social event. It is also hugely important to Japan's tourism industry. Every Spring cherry blossom trees across the country burst into bloom. According to Kansai University those blooms attract 63 million people who travel to and within Japan to witness the phenomenon. That tourism is worth around $2.7 billion (301 billion yen) to the Japanese economy.

Bloomberg has released a story map exploring the big business of Japan's cherry blossom season. In The Big Business of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms Bloomberg uses the story map format to show how the timing of the cherry blossom season varies across the country. The map goes on to show the location of 600 viewing spots which are popular with tourists and the volume of visitors to those spots in 2018.  A flow map is also used to show the number of tourists visiting Japan in March and April 2018 and which countries those visitors came from around the world.


If you can't afford to travel to Japan to experience cherry blossom season in person then you can bring cherry blossom season to your own town instead. Sakura is a fun website which allows you to visualize how your street would look if you could transport it to Japan in the springtime. The effect is so amazing that it can even transform my grey London street into the beautiful road of my dreams.


If you have a WebGL capable browser then share your location with Sakura to view your own home covered in pink cherry blossom on Street View.