Everything You Need to Know About Go To Campaigns in Japan
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What is “Go To” Campaigns?
Have you ever heard about ‘Go To’ Campaigns? Lately, people living in Japan are very excited about this campaigns. Go To Campaigns is promotions Japanese government launched to restart the Japanese economy as it has been damaged by the coronavirus. Go To Campaigns is divided into 2 campaigns. First, Go To Travel is a campaign that offers huge discounts to do domestic travel. The second one is Go To Eat; is a campaign that offers discounts on restaurants within Japan. Only residents of Japan (including foreign residents) are eligible to take advantage of the campaign. So, how to get the discounts offered by each campaign? Is there any limitation or requirements to be able to experience it?
Go To Travel
Go To Travel campaign started on July 2020 and it is expected to finish in the end of January 2021. It includes all regions in Japan. Also, all residents in Japan and foreigners who are living in Japan are also eligible to enjoy this campaign. Go To Travel campaign will cover your transportation fee and place to stay. You can choose to travel by bus, train (bullet train) or by plane. However, the discount cannot be applied to regular purchases of bus, train, and plane tickets. Most of travel agencies will offer you a travel package of transportation and accommodation to get the discount. The total discount you will get from Go To Travel campaign is 50% off the overall cost trip. With using this campaign, you will receive 35% discount of your transportation and accommodation fees. Not only that, you will also get 15% extra discount in the form of vouchers that can be used in many shops and restaurants at your destination. The vouchers are distributed in 2 types of form; physical and electronic. You will receive them via your travel agencies, online booking sites or at your hotel. It is non-refundable and you cannot receive change when you make payment using the vouchers.
There is an upper limit on the maximum discount that can be received for overnight trips. It is 20,000 yen per person and night (with 13,000 yen on the discount, and 7,000 yen equivalent voucher). In case of daytrips, the travelers can receive up to 10,000 yen (7,000 yen discount and coupons of up to 3,000 yen per trip). Even so, there is no limitation on how many trips you can enjoy during the campaign period. The only thing you have to remember is from November 1, there is a limit of seven nights per reservation. Yet, you can still make new reservation to extend the trip. Most of travel agencies throughout the country and travel booking sites such as JTB, Yahoo Travel and Rakuten Travel offers this campaign. You can book your trip from whichever option you feel most convenient for you.
Go To Eat
Go To Eat campaign is the second ‘Go To’ campaign by Japanese government which starts at October 1, 2020. It is a similar eagerness by the Japanese government to boost consumption and help the economy recover from losses caused by the pandemic. As it is already mentioned by its name; Eat, you can enjoy this campaign in numbers of restaurants. There are two parts of this campaign. First, you can get meal discount vouchers that can be used at specified restaurants. The second part is points you can earn by making online reservations for specified restaurants. The campaign began from October 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021 (meal vouchers and points expire on March 31, 2021).
The discount vouchers are available to purchase online. The voucher is ¥10,000 each but come with a value of ¥12,500. You will use the voucher to pay for your meals, but be careful that you will not get any change back. So, make sure the bill is as close to ¥12,500 as possible. You can get your discount by ordering from travel agencies such as JTB, Japan Travel and Tobu Top Tours which are authorized sellers, but you can order them online too. Not only getting 25% off for vouchers, you can also choose to get points. By make an online booking through these services: Gurunavi, Tabelog, Hot Pepper, and other Japanese sites; you can get 500 yen per peson on lunch reservation and 1000 yen per person for every dinner reservation. Then you can use the accumulated points for the next reservation. However, the expiry dates on each sites and services differs, so make sure you checked the dates and enjoy it before it gets expired.
