Melo Villareal
No, Japan Will Not Pay For Half Your Travel Costs If You Visit
If you are one of those who got extremely excited about the news that Japan will subsidize your travel costs if you visit the country after the pandemic, sorry, but that is not entirely true.
Earlier this week, news claiming that the Japanese government will subsidize visitors’ travel costs up to 20,000 yen/day ($185/day) if you visit Japan after the pandemic.
Kyoto Japan by Andre Benz via unsplash
According to an article published on May 26 in the Japanese news outlet Kyodonews, this program is the government’s way of reviving the tourism industry that was greatly affected by the pandemic. This was quickly picked up by other international news agencies such as The Daily Mirror in the UK, South China Morning Post in HongKong, iRadio in Ireland, as well as many travel blogs.
However, on May 27, the Japanese Tourism Agency dismissed the news. In a series of tweets, the agency clarified that the proposed “Go To Travel” program will only cover a “portion of domestic travel expenses.”
One of the tweets read: “Regarding reports by some news outlets that “The Japanese government is considering a campaign to help foreign tourists visiting Japan by offering support for half of their travel expenses”, please note that the Go to Travel Campaign under consideration by the Japanese government is to stimulate domestic travel demand within Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic and only cover a portion of domestic travel expenses.”
The said campaign aims to encourage domestic travel within Japan and apply only to Japanese residents. According to Hiroshi Tabata, head of the Japanese Tourism Agency, the campaign is planned to launch after the coronavirus pandemic is put under control, in July at the earliest.
Documents released by the Japanese economy ministry show that the subsidies will come in forms of travel and dining vouchers worth up to 20,000 yen per person per stay.
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