Japan will run a new domestic tourism subsidy program from Oct. 11 to late December as part of efforts to spur domestic tourism and revive the coronavirus-hit economy, tourism minister Tetsuo Saito said Monday.
The National Travel Discount will provide the equivalent of up to ¥11,000 ($77) in discounts and coupons per traveler per day, which can be used for meals, shopping and accommodation expenses.
The measure comes in line with a plan to resume individual, visa-free tourism and remove a daily cap on arrivals to the country, currently set at 50,000, on Oct. 11 as part of eased COVID-19 border control measures.
Airports and seaports across Japan will start preparations to resume international operations suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference Monday.
The National Travel Discount program, which is available to Japan residents only, comes in the wake of the Go To Travel subsidy program and expands on similar existing programs operating at the prefectural level.
Under a system where the national government subsidizes the costs borne by prefectural authorities to implement such programs, the 47 prefectures will be allowed to suspend the program depending on the infection situation within their jurisdiction.
Prefectural governments will have the authority to determine the program's running period or whether to implement it at all, leading to the possibility that it may not be launched simultaneously across the country.
The new program was initially planned to be introduced in July but was postponed due to the nation's seventh wave of infections.
A total of 87.81 million people took advantage of the Go To Travel program from July 22, 2020, until it ended on Dec. 28, 2020, due to the spread of the virus.