Japan's Go To Travel subsidy program to resume possibly in February

                                          

TOKYO: Japan's Go To Travel domestic tourism subsidy program may resume in February after being suspended late last year amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases, with the campaign to include compulsory virus countermeasures, government sources said Thursday.

While the number of new and serious COVID-19 cases in the country has sharply declined recently along with the progress of the vaccination program, the government believes it still needs to evaluate whether oral drugs to prevent serious cases will be available by the end of the year, the sources said.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a press conference Wednesday that oral medications will be an "ace in the hole" against the coronavirus. He also said the government will drastically review the tourism campaign to make it safer

The government is planning to require people taking advantage of the Go To Travel program to show proof of vaccination or a negative virus test result when they check into accommodation and on other occasions, according to the sources.

The tourism-boosting campaign, which covers 50 percent of travel costs up to 20,000 yen per person per night, began in July 2020 to support the industry amid the pandemic-caused downturn, with virus-hit Tokyo added to the program in October that year, but was suspended last December due to the rapid spread of infections.

The government is considering lowering the per night subsidy cap to 13,000 yen as the relatively large original discount was criticized for benefiting luxury hotels rather than more reasonably priced operations, according to the sources.

It is also studying a plan to run the nationwide campaign until the end of the Golden Week holidays in May and then switch to subsidizing prefectural governments' own tourism campaigns that promote travel for residents within their home prefectures, they said. 

The Japan Tourism Agency has been trialing procedures to confirm travelers' vaccination status or virus test results since October in preparation for a resumption of the travel campaign.

The agency will formulate operational guidelines by the end of this month, the sources said.

Opposition parties had criticized the program as a factor in the resurgence of virus infections. A total of 87.81 million hotel stays were made under the campaign by Dec 28 last year when it was halted, with the government spending 2.7 trillion yen on the scheme.

The planned review of the program aimed at spreading the benefits to a wider range of hotel operators and to make its use less concentrated around weekends and holidays.

A plan has emerged to reduce discount rates for accommodation facilities from 35 percent to 30 percent, in the hope that people will stay at hotels and inns that are not as expensive.

The revamped campaign is also expected to encourage people to travel more on weekdays, through measures such as handing out coupons worth 3,000 yen on weekdays for dining and shopping at travel destinations, while distributing 1,000 yen coupons on weekends and holidays, the sources said.

The tourism industry and local governments that were financially devastated by the pandemic have been calling for the Go To Travel program to be quickly restarted.