10,000 Free Tickets to Japan

Have you heard of the plan to distribute 10,000 free tickets to Japan? If not, here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/10-000-free-round-trip-tickets-j...

Any thoughts? Do you think it will push through? If yes, will you apply for it? :)

It seems a bigger problem is the stronger yen. A few years back it was around 120JPY to a USD. Even last year is was around 84-86 JPY to a USD. Now it is 76 JPY to a USD. A vacation in Japan now will cost about 40% more than a few years ago. Then add on to that higher cost a world economy that is still very sluggish. It sure seems wise to stay home or at least spend a vacation in somewhere that will cost much less.

Most people that want to travel to Japan may already know the radiation problem is some what under control, so maybe blogging about how safe Japan is will not seem like much help. It maybe better to give the 10,000 free tickets away and skip the blogging, just need each person to stay 2 weeks or longer.

I do believe after a bad disaster made Japan down even economic, business, tourist and so on.

Heavily impact still remain and not yet recover. At the same time, the tourist industry is large decrease if compare to another year. Tourist is worry about their health which cause them not to go to Japan.

But in my point of view, it should be better and more better because I know Japan government take action to prevent this case in term of look after their people's health and tourist who come to visit. Long time already that disaster was occurred so I think the bad effect should be fade by time and human's action. Japan is very beautiful country and nature that I ever dream to visit again and again. There are many things over there that some people won't know unless they visit and see by their eyes. Food, culture and traditional, technology, life style or more precious ideas and things we can explore in Japan. Obviously, if we take a look yen currently compare to US dollar which is remarkable. So spend over there is much more than before and at the same time because of disaster was happened previously. So Japan government or some organization should have any campaign specials like title raise up 10,000 tickets free to Japan. It is the significant campaign to show the world that Japan is safe place and nice play to visit. It could be effective mobilization to proof "Japan is a good and right choice to visit".

It's not all about the weak USD - though the impact of losing American tourism would be very high, it's essentially only a problem if you're American.

The Aussie dollar doesn't have any issue and has been sitting in a range of 80-88 yen for at least a couple of years (though recent weeks has been 75-80), which is somewhat normal for us. Also, holidaying here can cost just as much as Japan. We ditched a tropical Queensland holiday because going back to Tokyo was cheaper, with sale flights of under $1000 return for 2 people.

Do the number of tourists from Australia seem to be less than usual? Absolutely. You should have seen all the empty seats on our flights in September. There were also very few non-Japanese amongst us.

I strongly believe the reason for a decline of Australian tourists at least is because of the sensationalised media scaring people into thinking the risk of radiation, tsunami and earthquakes is substantial. We've heard more than enough comments from people here to support that belief.

Japan has never had good tourism numbers.
It's not a Top 10 tourist destination country.

Tokyo barely ranks in the Top 50 destinations for global tourists. Japan as a country doesn't rank in the Top 100. If it weren't for Tokyo Disney Resort, neither Tokyo nor Japan in general would rank in the Top 200 destinations for international tourists.

If fact, Tokyo is barely in the Top 10 among destinations in Asia (even before all the disasters)


This has always been a problem.
Until recently, Japan as a country mostly ignored the power of the tourist economy. Even today many major tourist destinations have only barebones infrastructure for welcoming international visitors.

This 10,000 Free Tickets plan is a desperate move by a Japanese government that as usual has been caught with it's head up its own a.. . stuck in the sand.

Sure, if 10,000 people all come for 10 days during a specified period of time, they will spend a lot of money and it will be hailed as successful but let's face it, it's a Hale Mary from a government grasping at straws.

Time to learn Chinese or Korean and check out the neighbors... lol

I'm headed there in March for my 4th trip to Japan. I'll spend 3 weeks there and am taking $4500 spending money, that is after the JR Pass and other essentials (MiFi, etc.) I will be in Ishinomaki on the 11th and I will contribute what I can to the area. It's the least I can do for a country that put up with me for 2 years in the 80s....

Already planning a 5th trip for 2013.... Am I getting a bit ahead of myself?! lol

If you think of the millions of tourists that come to Japan every year, and the millions of gaijin otakus that would love to go to Japan someday, then the 10.000 free air-tickets doesn't sound very much. I would hope for some restrictions that would weed out most people, but i'm affraid that the first thing that they'd do is make it "only for first-time visitors" which would mean i couldn't get the free tix. :)

I think that it might be a good plan though. There might be a lot of people who will plan on going to Japan with those free tickets, but when they don't get them will go anyway since they've spent a lot of time thinking and doing research about it.

I think that there are a lot of people who still don't consider Japan a safe place to visit because of the exagerated reports on the fukushima accident by the western media. Most people are stuck with the idea that there is some problem with a nuclear reactor in Japan that isn't resolved, a problem which they don't really understand and reminds them only of the dreaded chernobyl nuclear accident. If you visit other travel forums you'll still see threads about the issue.

Personally, i'm not concerned so much about the radiation in Japan. I'm more concerned about the euro going downhill, but that's just me.