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| People walk along a pedestrian crossing in the tourist district of Asakusa in Tokyo, July 31, 2021. AP-Yonhap |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Tour agencies here, which have been struggling with low travel demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, are set to capitalize on Japan's decision to ease entry restrictions for foreign tourists next month, according to company officials Friday. They expect more Korean tourists will fly to the neighboring country, which will serve as a catalyst in revitalizing the sluggish travel industry.
There will be a significant increase in the number of Korean tourists to Japan, as the Japanese government will expand the daily number of people allowed into the country starting next month and exempt them from strict quarantine requirements.
"Our company is currently receiving reservations for travel packages departing for Japan after July 20. We understand that other travel agencies are also planning similar products and accepting reservations," a spokesman of local travel agency Modetour said.
"The response from customers is much better than expected. Modetour is only selling tour packages to Hokkaido, and it is preparing to sell other products for travel to other regions of Japan starting next week."
Very Good Tour, a local travel agency, also said 1,365 tour programs for Osaka and Kobe were sold out within only two hours of release on May 25.
Their moves to promote travel to Japan came after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said recently that Japan will allow foreign tourists to enter the country through package tours starting June 10. Also, international flights will be expanded to cover airports in Sapporo and Okinawa.
Additionally, border restrictions will be eased on June 1, raising the daily cap of new arrivals to 20,000 from 10,000. Taking the easing of restrictions as a beginning, the local travel industry expects the Japanese government to lift entry restrictions on foreigners gradually.
The official expected that visa-free entry would have to be possible to increase travel further between Korea and Japan. "Even when it is not possible to enter the country without a visa, customers are making reservations for tour packages. If it becomes possible to enter Japan without a visa, the number of Korean tourists will increase even more," he said.
In March 2020, the Japanese government placed restrictions on entering the country and suspended visa-free entry for many countries including Korea.
The Korean government also banned Japanese visa-free entry.
"It has been three years since travel to Japan was cut off due to the deteriorated relationship between the two countries, starting in summer 2019 and the virus spread in 2020. For the domestic tourism industry, Japan is an important market as the monthly number of passengers to the country accounted for between 15 percent and 20 percent of the total number of travelers as of May 2019, just before their relationship became rocky," the spokesman said.
As COVID-19 quarantine measures around the world begin to ease, a growing number of Koreans are choosing to travel abroad. According to data by the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of tourists who left the country in March was 145,503, a 97 percent increase from the same period in 2021.
