Photo/Illutration Passengers get off a Shinkansen at JR Tokyo Station on Oct. 1. (Shiro Nishihata)

Tokyo resident Yoko Mitsuzuka could not contain her happiness.

“I have been waiting for this day,” she said, before boarding a Shinkansen at JR Tokyo Station on Oct. 1, the first day the capital joined the central government’s “Go To Travel” promotion campaign.

The 46-year-old company employee said she got a good deal for the three-day trip to Osaka Prefecture with her mother.

With the campaign discount, she paid less than 40,000 yen ($380) for their two nights of lodging. The money she saved from the deal will be spent on shopping, she said.

Mitsuzuka scheduled a trip to Kyoto Prefecture in February, which she canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The government kicked off the travel subsidy campaign, which provides travelers with a subsidy covering up to half of their travel costs, in late July but excluded trips to and from Tokyo.

As soon as the government announced the plan to add Tokyo to the campaign as of Oct. 1, Mitsuzuka booked a hotel for the Osaka trip.

“I have been stressed from teleworking and the government’s request to refrain from going out,” she said. “I want to get down and get away from it all.”

Like Mitsuzuka, many residents eagerly awaited the first day to get out of the capital with an enticement from the government--at bargain prices--and flocked to bus and train stations, as well as the terminals at Haneda Airport.

Mieko Suzuki, a 56-year-old resident of Hachioji, western Tokyo, took a sightseeing bus tour operated by Hato Bus Co.

She said taking a tour of the capital on a double-decker with her friend brought her joy.

“I had an itch to go out and travel,” she said. “Getting a discount is great, of course, but more than anything else, I’m happy to be able to go out and far--and feel free to do so,” she said.

Suzuki said she has already booked two Hato Bus tours for October.

The sight of enthusiastic travelers, including Suzuki, hopping on and off the buses colored in its signature lemon yellow was a sign of major relief for Yasuyuki Tanaka, a Hato Bus official.

“We are here at long last,” he said, looking back at the many tough months the company faced this year.

It suspended operations for about two months from April 8 after the government issued a state of emergency over the pandemic.

“It was an unprecedented decision in the company’s 70-or-so-year history. It crossed my mind whether the company could stay in business,” Tanaka said.

In fact, the customer exodus began way before the business shutdown.

After tour bus drivers and guides tested positive for the virus in Nara and Osaka prefectures in late January, the company was swamped with cancellations by customers worried about the safety of the tours.

The number of passengers it had in February was already only about half of what it had in the same period the year before. Then passenger bookings nosedived in March to just 6.5 percent of what it was a year ago.

The company instituted new anti-virus measures, such as reducing the number of tours and available seats. But the number of passengers in July and August dwindled to about 3 percent of the same period a year ago.

The company saw one sign of recovery, albeit only a glimmer, as the number of passengers in September rose to 4.8 percent of the same time last year.

But since Sept. 18, the company has received many inquiries from Tokyo residents about the campaign.

On the first day of October, it had sold out all its grape picking bus tours for Yamanashi Prefecture.

Starting in late October, the Tokyo metropolitan government is expected to launch its own travel campaign and offer subsidies.

Things seem to have taken an upturn for the moment.

But Tanaka is still wary.

He said he hopes the campaign will boost the tourism industry and the company will benefit from it.

“But at the same time, we don’t know for sure when things will return to normal,” he said. “We will monitor the state of the pandemic carefully and proceed cautiously.”

(This article was written by Yuji Masuyama, Yuta Ichijo and Shun Niekawa.)

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