Organised tours to Fukuhima

September 2, 2012

Popular Fukushima revitalization tours receive subsidy boost from Tokyo gov't

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120902p2a00m0na004000c.html

Budget travel packages aimed at cheering up people in Fukushima and helping revitalize the prefecture still reeling from the nuclear disaster have been gaining popularity among tourists, prompting the Tokyo government to fork out additional subsidies to such tours, it has been learned.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has earmarked an additional 60 million yen in its fiscal 2012 budget to subsidize travel packages from Tokyo to Fukushima, for use starting in October. While the metropolitan government has earlier set aside some 110 million yen in budget for such subsidies in the current fiscal year, it turned out that the amount is set to be used up by the end of September.

Under the scheme, people who live, work or study in the capital can benefit from the subsidy program by applying for tours offered by travel agencies registered with the metropolitan government. Participants can get a 3,000 yen discount for an overnight tour to Fukushima and a 1,500 yen discount for a one-day trip to the prefecture. The metropolitan government provides subsidies for up to two nights for each overnight tour.

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March last year, the metropolitan government began subsidizing overnight tours from Tokyo to Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. The 50,000 nights worth of subsidies allocated to such tours in the fiscal 2011 budget were used up, proving the popularity of the initiative. In fiscal 2012, the metropolitan government limited the destination of such tours to Fukushima Prefecture only and additionally created one-day tour packages. The program proved so popular once again that tour packages worth 20,000 nights and 15,000 one-day trips will have been sold out by September -- half a year earlier than scheduled.

The metropolitan government's Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs decided to continue the program by increasing the budget, and has started soliciting travel agencies that are willing to use the subsidy system for the October-December 2012 period, during which tour packages worth 5,500 nights and 3,000 one-day trips will be subsidized. Already, 272 travel agencies have registered for the system, up 34 companies compared to the figure in the first half of 2012. Applicants for the subsidy system for the January-March 2013 period will be solicited later.

The financial assistance program has been hailed by both tourists and travel agencies. In a survey conducted by Club Tourism International Inc. on 1,000 people who visited Fukushima on such tours between June last year and April this year, more than 90 percent responded that they "want to revisit" the prefecture. An official with the public relations office at JTB Corp. also hailed the program, saying, "The metropolitan government's subsidy system has the effect of giving a prod to those who think, 'I'm afraid of radiation but would like to support the recovery of Fukushima.' Participants of such tours are likely to travel there again as well."

According to the Fukushima Prefectural Government's tourism exchange division, the number of tourists to the prefecture stood at about 57 million in 2010, which dropped by 40 percent in 2011 after the triple disasters. The figure has been on a recovery trend this year, but is still more than 30 percent short compared to that prior to the disasters.

"The metropolitan government's initiative has been of considerable help to us. Having people visit Fukushima provides a foothold for recovery here," said an official with the division.