TOKYO -- More than 33 million foreign travelers visited Japan from Jan to Nov, exceeding the current annual record high marked in 2019, government estimates showed.

In November alone, the estimated number of foreign visitors rose 30.6 percent from a year earlier to 3,187,000, bringing the cumulative total to 33,379,900 since January this year, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday.

The figure has surpassed the previous full-year high in 2019 by 1.5 million, marking a significant recovery in demand for travel to Japan, after a plummet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If things go well, the 2024 total will surpass 35 million," Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Naoya Haraikawa told a press conference the same day.