Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) announced on July 10 2020 that ‘Go To Travel,’ the governmet's leading domestic travel recovery campaign, will begin on July 22 2020 before four consecutive holidays to boost domestic travel demand, although COVID-19 cases have recently increased again nationwide, particularly in Tokyo.
Local common coupons, which can be used for restaurants and shopping in destinations as one of ‘Go To Campaign,’ will be issued after September 1 2020.
The Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA)’s leading organization was selected among five proposals as a management body for the campaign at about 189.5 billion JPY, less than the official ceiling amount of 229.4 billion JPY.
The management body consists of JATA, All Nippon Travel Agents Associations (ANTA), Japan Travel and Tourism Association, JTB, KNT-CT Holdings, Nippon Travel Agency and Tobu Top Tours as joint proposers and is joined by All Japan Ryokan Association, Japan Ryokan and Hotel Association, Japan Hotel Association, Japan City Hotel Association, Recruit Lifestyle, Rakuten and Yahoo as partners.
JTA was initially supposed to begin the campaign in August this year, however has judged to advance it, keeping precaution protocols and at the same time boosting tourist demands to help tourism-related industries recover their businesses. Ahead of the national initiative, about 40 prefectures have already launched their original tourism campaigns, which have attracted a lot of tourists’ interests.
The government has budgeted about 1,700 billion JPY for ‘Go To Campaign’ under the first FY2020 supplementary budget. Out of the total support amount, around 70% will be used for discount of travel cost, and around 30% for shopping coupons that can be used in local destinations.
In the beginning, the 70% support for travel cost will be offered on July 22, and for a traveler who have already booked a travel after July 22, the discounted cost will be paid back later.
After July 27, travel providers, including travel agents, OTAs or hotels and ryokans, will begin selling their original ‘Go To Travel’ products.
Go To Travel campaign supports half of overnight or day trip price a traveler, benefiting up to 20,000 JPY a traveler for an overnight trip and up to 10,000 JPY a traveler for a day trip. In terms of consecutive nights and travel frequencies during the campaign period, there is no limitation.
The campaign will benefit not only individual travelers but also group travels, such as school trip or corporate trip booked through travel agents or OTAs.
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