TOKYO – A latest initiatives aimed at helping to spread out tourists during the peak Tokyo 2020 Olympics will see Japan Airlines (JAL) give away 100,000 round-trip domestic flight tickets to foreign visitors in hopes of enticing more to venture beyond the capital to other Japanese cities.
The giveaway will be offered through JAL’s Random Destination Miles programme, which enables customers to apply for round-trip tickets to one of four destinations selected at random by the airline.
The Win a Trip with JAL campaign will cover flights between Jul 1 and Sept 30, and entries will open from late February.
The campaign is part of a larger travel push by the Japan Tourism Agency and the Japan National Tourism Organization in 2020 to encourage tourists to visit more cities beyond Tokyo during the Olympics, Nikkei Asian Review reported.
Overseas members of the JAL Mileage Bank frequent flyer programme can enter the draw for the free round-trip tickets departing from Haneda Airport in Tokyo, and Itami and Kansai airports in Osaka.
The move also aims to ease the shortage of accommodations in Tokyo and spread the effects of tourism countrywide during the Olympics and Paralympics.
During the 2012 Olympics in London, the city faced a shortage of hotel rooms due to heavy demand from British spectators and Olympic staff, a survey by the Mizuho Research Institute found. This squeezed overseas tourists out of London, some of whom changed their vacation plans to go elsewhere to avoid the crowds.
More details can be found here.