Which online’big beast’ just added muscle to Japan’s domestic travel drive?

Online travel agent Agoda has announced it will join the Japanese Tourism Agency’s (JTA) ‘Go To’ campaign, ensuring its travellers booking Japan domestic travel on Agoda can benefit from the “Go To” travel subsidy and make savings of 35% up to 14,000 JPY per person per night on accommodation bookings at eligible hotels.  

In addition to participating in Japan’s ‘Go To’ campaign and Thailand’s ‘Ttogether’ campaign, Agoda has also invested in the international roll-out of its GoLocal campaign. designed to stimulate the domestic tourism markets across the Asia Pacific and global markets by encouraging people to explore more of their own country, with savings of up to 25% to do so. Furthermore, hotel partners are supported by a multi-channel marketing campaign to help reach more potential travellers.  

John Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Agoda, said: “Asia is slowly coming out of lockdowns and opening up domestic travel. It’s great that governments have been devoting efforts to rejuvenate the tourism industry. Governments understand the value of tourism to the economy as well as to the surrounding ecosystem around travel. Agoda can lend its technology and marketing expertise to help those most impacted, including local hoteliers and SMEs, to maximize their efforts to reinvigorate domestic travel demand. By simplifying booking systems and payment gateways, we aim to take out the hassle from travel for people across the country.  
  
We are delighted to work with the Japanese Tourism Board as we have with the Thailand Authority of Tourism on their rejuvenation packages to boost domestic travel in these markets. We aim to help impacted travel sector recover, as we bring keen travellers to well-equipped hotels and extend the reach and efficiency of these Government’s travel programs.”    

Hiroto Ooka, associate vice president, North Asia, Agoda, added: “As travel restrictions ease, we anticipate the appetite and enthusiasm for domestic travel will increase and the ‘Go To’ and the GoLocal campaign will encourage this. We have seen hotels who are early adopters of GoLocal significantly outperforming other properties within the domestic travel sector across the region, and so we are confident we will be successful in Japan.

Its true Japan’s domestic market is dominant, we like to travel around our own country and to explore and discover its natural beauty, the bustling, cities, to delve into the history, and cultures that our diverse country has to offer. We also enjoy returning to places we have visited before to unearth other treasures we might have missed on our previous visit. Both the ‘Go To’ subsidy program and Agoda’s GoLocal campaign offer great savings opportunities for Japanese looking to do just that.”  

“Post-Covid travel doesn’t only just rejuvenate your soul, it is also supporting the small hotel operators in cities and further afield who are ready and willing to welcome travellers back, We applaud the Japanese Government’s commitment to supporting the travel industry in Japan and look forward to doing our part to help make the campaign a success,” Ooka continued.