Domestic travel in Japan expected to surge during Golden Week holidays

The number of domestic travelers during the upcoming Golden Week string of national holidays beginning at the end of this month is set to surge by almost 70 percent compared to a year earlier, Japan's largest travel agency said on Monday.

JTB Corp. said it estimates that the number of people heading for local destinations during the spring holidays between late April and early May will be about 16 million based on economic benchmarks and provisional bookings, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Compared to the same holiday period last year, when Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures were under a COVID-19 state of emergency, the figure is up 68.4 percent.

Compared to the same time frame in 2019, however, before the pandemic hit, JTB said the number was in fact down 33.4 percent, according to NHK.

As for the upcoming spring holidays, domestic travelers overall plan to take longer trips compared to past two years, according to an online survey.

The survey showed that 36.1 percent of respondents said they plan to take an overnight trip and stay for two days, although this is a slight drop of 3.1 percent compared to a year ago.

Those planning to make a three-day-two-night trip comprised 32.6 percent of those surveyed, rising 4 percent from a year earlier, and those booking a four-day trip were 17.1 percent of the total, which was an increase of 0.8 percent compared to the previous year.