In April 2020, while the world’s major cities were resorting to legally imposing lockdowns, a state of emergency was declared in Japan. Unlike other countries, the declaration was a "request to remain at home," but after this declaration, a stay-at-home mood spread at once among the public.
In October, more than half a year since the declaration, the Japanese government launched the "Go To Campaign" -a series of relief measures taken by the government to stimulate domestic travel, encourage spending, and to boost local economies.
In this article, we update you on the status of "Japan" -a safe destination, which has kept going while minimizing the spread of the virus.
There is a week-long holiday period from late April through early May every year in Japan. According to a survey conducted by JTB, about 25 million people went on trips during this period in 2018, and almost the same number of people answered they were planning a trip in 2019.
The survey suggests that generally one-fifth of the people in Japan go on a trip at this time of the year; however, things have changed significantly this year. Many people refrained from going out in response to the state of emergency declaration due to the pandemic. In fact, the number of people in Shibuya (which was expected to be crowded with tourists) and Hakone (a popular tourist destination near Tokyo), decreased by more than 70% to 90% compared to the same period last year.
However, after the state of emergency was lifted on May 25, the self-restraining mood gradually lifted, and the number of visitors began to recover.
In Japan, with the aim to stimulate consumption and revitalize the nation’s economy, the government launched the "Go To Campaign" in July. Below is an overview of the campaign. (For more information on the Go To Campaign, download the material found at the end of this article).
[Go To Travel]
To stimulate domestic tourism, accommodation expense is discounted, and regional coupons that can be used at travel destinations are provided to the travelers.
[Go To Eat]
To encourage people to dine out and keep the economy going and also to support agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries that are at the base of the food industry, discounts are offered to consumers in the form of premium meal tickets (discount vouchers) that are available for purchase up to a certain amount, or in the form of reward points that are given for on-line reservations that could be redeemed after the meal for future use.
[Go To Event]
To stimulate demand for going to events, discount tickets or coupons that can be used for purchasing goods at venues are made available to the public.
[Go To Local Shopping]
To revitalize shopping streets and attract people’s attention to local stores, subsidies are given to shopping streets for holding promotional events and developing new products.
"Go To Travel" started in July and took the lead of these four campaigns. Tokyo was initially excluded ―as its number of infections surged just before the campaign kicked off― but was added to the destination list in October.
"Go To Eat," "Go To Event," and "Go To Local Shopping" started in sequence after September. These campaigns are sure to encourage more people to go out and accelerate the flow of people in Japan.
October 3-4 was the first weekend after Tokyo was added to the arrival and departure list of “Go To Travel”. Meanwhile, signs of recovery for tourism was seen all over Japan.
To take the example of Shibuya Center Street (one of the most famous shopping streets in Tokyo), the number of people walking down the street decreased by 43.1% from what it was before the pandemic, but when compared to the number before the declaration of the state of emergency, it increased by 86.6%.
Also, the number of visitors in Hakone (a popular tourist destination in the suburbs of Tokyo) increased by 19.1% (about 1.2 times more) compared to before the pandemic. Compared to the figure before the declaration of a state of emergency by the Japanese government when people had refrained from going out, this is a 315.4% increase. The number of visitors was more than quadrupled.
In Japan, people are adapting quite well to their “new lifestyle” to survive the pandemic by social distancing, mask-wearing, and handwashing.
Safe Destination Japan is highly recommended for holding post-pandemic events. Why not consider having events in Japan now?
For more details on “Go To Campaign“ and tourism trends in Japan, please download the file from the link below.