‘Test tourism’ in Japan insufficient for industry’s needs

After Japan Tourism Agency announced that a group of 50 triple vaccinated tourists from Australia, Thailand, the United States and Singapore will be allowed to visit the country as part of organized tours by selected agencies only, tour operators in Japan had their hopes high for the revival of the tourism sector.

The trial followed the intention of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to open borders starting June and was meant to gather information about further measures aiming to control the pandemic and reopen travel. But the move left tour operators rather disappointed.

“To control the movement of travellers, I can understand the approach. However, it is a very restricted way of accepting leisure travellers. The ways of travel are diverse, and segregating travellers and focusing on only ‘fixed itineraries’ with a tour leader is rather odd”, tour operator Hiroshi Kawaguchi declared.

As the pressure to resume travel increases and the Japanese economy is considerably affected by lack of tourists, players in the industry are still waiting for the country to reopen its borders. Moreover, the government test tourism trial is considered inefficient and with no positive results for the industry’s empolyees.

“After more than two years of de facto isolation, I think we should take the next step as soon as possible. While many markets are recovering from the economic blow of COVID-19, the inbound market is still struggling.

“In addition to that, there has been a drastic decrease in the number of jobs in inbound support, human resource development, and tour production. We hope that the restrictions will be removed as soon as possible, following the Prime Minister’s statement of easing border measures in line with G7 levels”, tour guide Yoshi Tomiyama added.

With the authorities announcing the country will reopen for tourism starting June and the easing of quarantine and PCR testing rules, sector players have high hopes for the market to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Nevertheless, tourism habits are expected to change.

“I am not sure this is the start of a new era, but there should be drastic changes in traveller’s demands and preferences,” Hiroshi Kawaguchi concluded.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Japan recorder huge number of foreign visits as well as a tourism market accounting for $31bn. But then the pandemic hit, hindering official estimations for 40 million visitors for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

 

source: aljazeera.com