Fifty thousand foreign tourists are set to win free round trip tickets from Japan Airlines for 2020. That's a total of 100,000 free flight tickets to be given away for free next year.
JAL has yet to release full details of the promo. However, according to its announcement, travelers need to register outside of Japan with the flag carrier's Mileage Bank frequent flyer program to be eligible to apply for the free tickets.
The real catch, however, is that tourists who wish to apply for the promo won't know where exactly in Japan they are going up until a few weeks before their flight. The only clue to where tourists are going is that the flights are flying out of Haneda airport in Tokyo or Osaka's Itami and Kansai airports.
Those places suggest that JAL will be taking tourists to provincial destinations and not in the crowd's favorite which is Tokyo. Rest assured, groups with a maximum of four members are allowed to apply. Applicants will be notified within three days of applying.
The promo aims to attract foreign travelers to places that are less frequented by tourists. In 2018, Japan welcomed 31 million foreign travelers, up from merely 13.4 million in 2014.
The country's tourism industry has since been significant in boosting its economy. However, travelers have their favorite places to go which means that only a few Japanese areas can benefit from economic boosts from foreign visitors. Hopefully, JAL's promotional activity could help the country introduce other places to foreigners.
JAL's promo is also aimed at reducing the number of tourists coming to Tokyo between July 1 and September 30 next year. The capital city is hosting the Olympic Summer Games around those months.
Japan expects that more than 10 million tourists will pour in the city in time of the Olympics. The 50,000 foreign travelers that will win JAL's promo flights will be of significant help to lessen the strain in the city.
Further, JAL's promo may also help compensate for the dip in a number of South Korean travelers going to Japan for two consecutive months already. Officials said this may continue next year as South Korea struggles with the economic slowdown.
Budget airlines in South Korea have reduced their trips to Japan and instead offer much cheaper destinations like China and Vietnam.
With fewer South Koreans going to Japan, the country's overall tourism dipped by 5.5% in November. The increasing number of tourists coming from China and the United States, meanwhile, could not compensate for the dwindling South Korean travelers.
