School trips to Okinawa decrease in 2021 by 34% compared to pre-COVID levels, down to 1,567 schools

School trips to Okinawa decrease in 2021 by 34% compared to pre-COVID levels, down to 1,567 schools


July 6, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo

By Yuki Nakamura

 

In 2021, Okinawa again saw a trend of schools postponing or changing the destination of their school trips.

According to the Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB), the number of schools planning to travel to Okinawa for school trips decreased by 34.7% compared to 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with total number of visitors similarly decreasing by 25.3% to 305,634 people. These figures were calculated as of June 8, and are highly likely to change along with the situation surrounding the pandemic, with a representative from the OCVB commenting that it is a “very fluid” situation.

The school numbers were collected by inquiring to 10 of the 15 companies that handle school trips to Okinawa.

According to preliminary figures released by Okinawa Prefecture in May, the number of schools to make trips to Okinawa in 2020 was only 149, for a total number of 31,583 people. In July of last year, there were 2,144 schools with 409,755 visitors planning on making trips to Okinawa, however due to cancellations and destination changes that number fell off by over 90%.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education notified Tokyo schools in March that until “Go to Travel” reopened school trips would be either cancelled or postponed. The total number of schools to visit Okinawa in 2019 before COVID-19 was 2,398 schools, totaling 409,011 visitors. By prefecture, Tokyo was responsible for the most of these trips.

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

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