On May 10, the Japan Tourism Agency and JATA (Japan Association of Travel Agents) held a joint press conference to outline the “Now is the Time to Go Abroad Declaration,” an initiative to build momentum for overseas travel! Declaration” and held a joint press conference to outline the declaration.
Koichi Wada, Director General of the Japan Tourism Agency, pointed out that while inbound travel (travel to Japan) is currently recovering to around 70%, outbound travel (overseas travel by Japanese) is not growing, which is the reason behind the declaration, and explained that information dissemination and campaigns will be developed with the cooperation of JATA, airline companies, and government tourism bureaus. 5 He said that he hopes to create momentum that “it is OK to go abroad” in response to the revision of the new coronary disease classification to category 5 on May 8, and the elimination of the need to present proof of vaccination upon entry into Japan.
Taking as an example the fact that the U.S. overseas travel market has recovered to about 80%, JATA Chairman Hiroyuki Takahashi said, “Japan is lagging behind. He pointed out that compared to South Korea and Taiwan, which had adopted similar measures to Japan in response to the new Corona and were rapidly recovering, Japan was the only country lagging behind, and various issues were becoming apparent.
Specifically, continued sluggish outbound travel will weaken the presence of the Japanese market overseas, resulting in problems such as the inability to secure airline seats and hotel rooms. A good balance of inbound and outbound travel in both directions will lead to an early recovery of international air traffic, which in turn will lead to a recovery of international business and further expansion of inbound travel.
To help with this recovery, JATA will launch a campaign on May 15 to support the cost of obtaining a passport. The passport acquisition rate among Japanese has long been one of the lowest in the developed world, but it has dropped from 24.4% in 2019 to 17.8% in 2022, and the current situation is that many Japanese did not have a passport in the first place, but it expired due to the Corona disaster and has been left in place.
As the first phase of the campaign, 3,210 people will be selected by lottery under certain conditions to receive an electronic gift worth approximately half the cost of a 10-year passport (8,000 yen), and all applicants will receive a special discount on overseas Wi-Fi rental fees.
The following 24 countries and regions have been selected as priority destinations in the “Policy Package for Full-Scale Recovery of Outbound Travel,” which was announced on March 15, as countries and regions where priority efforts should be made from both inbound and outbound perspectives.
© Source travel watch