[Update, October 30] This article has been updated as some of the travel agencies recently changed the release dates of their Tokyo Tourism staycation packages.
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[October 29] Tokyo got the short end of the stick when it was excluded from Go To Travel in the first few weeks of the campaign, but now the city has its own staycation discounts on top of the national travel subsidy. In early October, governor Yuriko Koike unveiled a new Tokyo Tourism Promotion Project called 'Let's Enjoy More! Tokyo Tokyo' (hereinafter 'Motto Tokyo'), offering Tokyo residents up to ¥5,000 discount for overnight stays and up to ¥2,500 for day trips – both within Tokyo. Unsurprisingly, the offer was too good to pass up and the first batch of staycation packages with this new subsidy were all snapped up within hours of their release on October 23.
Not to worry, though; the metropolitan government is still recruiting travel agencies for the campaign through December. This means that even though some Motto Tokyo deals ran out immediately, there are more to come, as the allocated budget is expected to cover 400,000 hotel nights.
To give you an idea of just how good the deals are, booking a night at a hotel with a rate of ¥9,000 will entitle you to use both Go to Travel and Motto Tokyo discounts. After which, you’d only have to fork out ¥850 of your own money for one night of city staycation. Good deal, eh? You can check the math here.
While there’ll be more opportunities to book your dream staycation, you might want to keep an eye out on the following dates as the demand for Motto Tokyo deals is fierce.
These companies will be releasing a new batch of Motto Tokyo packages from October 30.
- Rakuten Travel: reservations open from October 30
- Agnes Hotel: reservations open from Sunday November 1
- Jalan: reservations open from 10am, Monday November 2
- d Travel: reservations open from November 6
- Ikyu.com: reservations open from mid-December
- Yahoo Travel reservation dates TBA
- Club Tourism reservation dates TBA
This is a developing story. We will continue to update this report when more information is available.
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