The tourism industry in Japan - an analysis of its evolution and current incentives to overcome the pandemic

Abstract

Pursuing its path of evolution and maturation after opening up to the Western counterparts, Japan wanted to familiarize with this new global perspective, and started to actively develop a more modern tourism industry, in order to gain further regard and visibility. In the past evolutionary phases, policies have been variously promoted to obtain foreign currencies and break the country’s isolation at the earliest stage, as well as to boost the travel industry through the establishment of numerous institutions and organizations. Nowadays the "Realization of a Tourism Nation" has, even more, emerged as one of the crucial national goals for the prosperity of the Japanese economy in the twenty-first century. The success of all of these endeavors has been quite evident, as in recent years a steady and rapid development of Japan’s inbound tourism can be observed. Unfortunately, this virtuous circle was abruptly stopped in its entirety due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 disease, has unimaginably affected every industry, but among all industries, the tourism and hospitality industry is to be considered the worst-hit, further aggravating a not very thriving economic situation, in the case of Japan. Japan soon declared its state of emergency, entirely preventing the flow of inbound tourism and isolating itself from the rest of the world. This research aims to trace the main past phases and evolutions of the industry, and to later focus on the policies and measures that have been adopted to promote domestic tourism within the country, analysing in particular the "GoToTravel Campaign". Due to the major loss that the travel industry was facing, the Japanese government started in fact to conduct a domestic demand recovery campaign on an unprecedented scale, in order to revive the industry, causing a new travel trend to emerge under the corona that is still continuing now, even after the re-opening of the borders. Consequently, it seeks to discuss the issue of the re-opening, trying to delineate the future measures and expectations issued by the government, as well as the point of view and the social perception of the Japanese population in such regard.