The kickoff of a nationwide travel discount program aimed at boosting the domestic tourism industry is facing headwinds due to a confusing array of policies that vary by prefecture.

The mix of policies within the program — which despite having central government funding is organized at the prefectural level — has led to confusion among travelers and travel agencies alike, with start dates and COVID-19 protocols among the details that differ from place to place.

Discounts of up to ¥8,000 ($54) per person per day will be available for package tours including public transportation, while discounts of up to ¥5,000 per person per day will be offered for bookings of accommodation only. Vouchers worth ¥3,000 per person per day are available for food and shopping expenses on weekdays, with the figure falling to ¥1,000 per person per day on weekends.

Travelers need to be vaccinated with three shots or provide a negative PCR test taken within three days of their departure. The discounts will be available for travel through Dec. 20.

Overall, the campaign began on Tuesday, but Tokyo has delayed accepting travelers using the discounts to Oct. 20.

Meanwhile, Miyagi Prefecture is allowing its residents to be eligible for the discounts with only two shots when traveling within the prefecture. But travelers visiting from outside the prefecture need to be vaccinated with three doses to qualify.

“By making prefectures implement (their own) discounts, they can flexibly run the system based on the spread of infections in their local areas,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Tuesday. “Prefectures are offering their own time schedule or types of discount and then conveying the information to relevant parties.”

The hodgepodge of rules is causing a headache for travel agencies and hotel operators.

Hoshino Resorts, which runs a hotel chain, decided to push back accepting reservations for the discounts until Oct. 25 so they can have a website ready that offers a comprehensive rundown of the details and conditions for the discounts for each of its hotels across Japan.

“Under the current system, users are expected to go through more steps to make reservations since the campaigns vary by prefecture and policy on vaccinations may differ among travelers,” Hoshino Resorts said on its website.

“As a result, we launched a dedicated website for the national travel discount from Oct. 11 that offers all the details at a glance,” Hoshino Resorts said.

In addition, the Japan Tourism Agency's announced that discounts could be applied to trips that had been booked before the start of the discount campaign, which only added to the confusion, with some booking agencies setting separate polices.

Travel agency H.I.S. has asked travelers who booked trips before Oct. 7 — ahead of the discount launch — to cancel their reservations and rebook after Friday if they want to apply the discounts for trips starting in November. The move prompted harsh criticism on social media.

Yahoo Travel, meanwhile, stopped accepting reservations for prefectures that have already received the maximum number of reservations for the funding allocated to the travel agency. Those prefectures include: Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata, Tochigi, Ehime, Nagasaki and Miyazaki.