Japan to go ahead with Tourism EXPO as planned

The Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) has announced that the Tourism EXPO Japan (TEJ) will be organized at the Okinawa Convention Centre from October 29 to November 1 this year as originally scheduled. 

The event will be organized by following the public health guidelines drawn by Japan Exhibition Association and in line with the Okinawa Prefecture’s action plan ‘Okinawa Tour Style With Corona.’ 

The event will be downsized from 600 booths originally to 450 booths, probably 80 international booths to avoid congestion, and the deadline of applications for the exhibition has been extended by July 31, 2020. Under the visitor control, 130 buyers and 27,000 visitors are expected to come to the event. 

Yoshinori Ochi, JATA director general, said, “TEJ will be a good timing to accelerate recovery of the travel market.”

Even though there are cautious voices that say it is too early to organize an international event, Ochi said that organizing the event under the current circumstance is to make a big movement toward recovery of the travel business.