Japan planning to pay half of your travel expenses to encourage tourism

Japan has announced it will pay half your travel expenses in efforts to encourage travellers to visit the country following the pandemic.

Although international travel remaining uncertain for now, savvy countries are offering incentives to bring visitors to their shores. 

Japan is following in Sicily’s footsteps, which offered to pay half of tourist’s flight costs, and is offering a similar scheme to entice travellers to the country. 

Reports in an article by The Mainichi, one of Japan’s largest newspapers, the Japanese government has given the green light to a 1.35 trillion yen (£10.3 billion approx.) investment for Japan’s tourism. 

If approved, the plan will cover half of a visitor’s travel expenses and should hopefully cover the 99.9% decrease in visitors from April 2019 to April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The chief of Japanese Tourism Agency, Hiroshi Tabata, revealed that the scheme could start as early as July as long as coronavirus infections continue to subside. 

The plan has yet to be finalised but it should hopefully provide the nation’s tourism industry with a boost that will be vital to mitigating any economic fallout. 

The Tokyo Olympics have also been pushed back to 2021 due to the outbreak, and the financially lucrative cherry blossom tree has also been impact by the pandemic. 

Japan is currently denying entry to people of roughly 100 nations due to the virus, meaning that any trips within the new scheme will likely be later in the year.