Tokyo, November 14 (BNA): The Japanese Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday that the Japanese government is considering resuming support aimed at boosting domestic tourism as early as mid-January.
The move will ease pressure on airlines and hotels hit by the curtailment of travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, and confirm hopes among policy makers of reviving the economy from doldrums through pent-up demand.
The support will be part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s new pandemic relief program expected to be rolled out on Friday, Reuters reports.
With COVID-19 infections starting to climb, Japan in December halted a program that used taxpayer money to offer local tourists discounts on hotels and local travel fees.
At the request of the tourism industry, Nikkei said, the government will consider resuming the program from mid-January or February, until about late April.
The newspaper said that the government will offer greater discounts for travel during weekdays compared to those on weekends, to avoid condensing flights during the weekend.
Without naming sources, Nikki said that it will also reduce the maximum discount offered per flight compared to the previous program.
The government could not be reached for comment.
Japan’s economy is likely to contract 0.8% annually in the third quarter as supply restrictions and the state of emergency anti-epidemic restrictions weighed on exports and consumption, according to a Reuters poll.
Analysts expect consumption to pick up after the September 30 end of restrictions, although slowing Chinese growth and persistent supply bottlenecks cast a shadow over the outlook for the export-dependent economy. The government will release preliminary GDP data for the third quarter on Monday.