The national campaign scales back domestic travel assistance after the New Year’s holiday rush. (AP pic)
TOKYO: More local governments in Japan are offering new incentives for domestic travel in addition to national subsidies, hoping to give a boost to an industry still recovering from Covid-19.
The national travel support campaign went back into effect Tuesday, after a pause during the New Year holidays, a busy travel season.
The programme now covers 20% of domestic travel costs through discounts and coupons up to a cap of ¥7,000 (US$53) per person per day – down from 40% and ¥11,000 when it launched in October.
The programme will continue until the budget runs out, with many local governments eyeing a March 31 end date. For the national programme, travellers must show proof of three Covid-19 vaccinations or a negative PCR test result.
With the national programme scaling down, some local governments are picking up the slack.
On Jan 25, Osaka prefecture will start offering coupons worth ¥3,000 on weekdays and ¥2,000 on weekends and holidays for bookings at participating hotels. Officials say they want to encourage more people to visit in January and February, which are typically slow tourism months.
Over 400,000 people are expected to take advantage of these coupons by Feb 28, though the programme could end earlier if its ¥1.2 billion budget runs out, according to the Osaka prefecture government.
Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, will offer a ¥2,000 coupon to the first million travellers there who spend ¥5,000 or more per night. It budgeted ¥2 billion for the campaign.
Travel-related businesses are hopeful the measures will accelerate the industry’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Domestic travel still has not recovered to pre-Covid levels,” said Hiroyuki Takahashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Travel Agents. “We hope the assistance continues as long as possible, even if there are changes to the details.”
Occupancy rates at Hotel New Otani Osaka topped 70% in November and December after the national subsidies began. While new bookings are “not rising as quickly as they had in 2022,” rooms are filling up for February when travellers will be able to use both the national subsidy and Osaka’s own coupons, a hotel representative said.
Hotel group Hoshino Resorts began taking reservations on Thursday for its OMO hotels on the northern island of Hokkaido, a popular winter travel destination.
“Bookings for January and February had roughly doubled on the year as of Tuesday,” a company representative said.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines saw passenger numbers on domestic flights top 80% of pre-pandemic levels for the New Year holidays. East Japan Railway also said reservations for shinkansen bullet trains are trending up.
“The recovery in domestic travel demand will be extremely smooth,” said Koji Shibata, CEO of All Nippon Airways parent ANA Holdings.
