“Golden Week” – An important test of Japanese tourism

When COVID-19 epidemic there have been positive changes, Japan travel There is a prospect of recovery, especially in late April and early May there will be “Golden Week” a long holiday in Japan, Japanese people will choose to travel more, also an opportunity. so that tourism businesses and related service industries can gradually restore business operations.

Unlike the “Golden Week” in 2021 when the COVID-19 epidemic is breaking out, this year’s “Golden Week” has witnessed the prospect of recovering activities in the tourism and service business in Japan. .

According to the Sankei newspaper, during the “Golden Week” holiday, which lasts about 10 days from the end of April to the beginning of May, the number of domestic Japanese tourists is expected to increase by 70% over the same period in 2021. According to the survey of JTB – a large Japanese travel group, it is estimated that 16 million people will travel during “Golden Week”. This figure shows that tourism business has improved, but has not yet reached the level of the pre-epidemic period.

Japan’s tourism industry is recovering. Illustration – Photo: Reuters

The development of tourism activities also leads to the recovery of business activities of related industries such as transportation or accommodation. Booking rates for convenient means of long-distance travel, such as Shinkansen bullet trains and airplanes, both increased 5% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, hotel booking rate also improved. The number of people choosing to stay one night, decreased by 3.1% compared to last year, but the number of people choosing to stay 2 nights and 3 nights for a trip both increased by 33% and 17.1% respectively.

Although the tourism stimulus program “Go to travel” has not been restarted, the Japanese Government has temporarily promoted a tourism support program called WakuWaku, which sounds similar to the English word go to encourage tourism. encourage people to travel more.

According to the newspaper, Yomiuri, the number of people choosing to travel during the “Golden Week” holiday increased partly due to the policy of supporting tourism by region continued by the Japanese Government until the end of May.

The level of support is 7,000 Yen, of which 5,000 is for hotel accommodation and 2,000 Yen for dining and shopping. This is not a small amount of money that can help meet the travel needs of people in the context of tight spending due to the recent sharp increase in the prices of items in Japan.

“Golden week” will be an important test for Japan to make a decision to fully open up to foreign tourists and fully restore the domestic tourism and service industry. To ensure safety when traveling, the Government of this country encourages people to quickly complete the vaccination program.

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