The impact of travel subsidy on individual accommodations under COVID-19 pandemic

Analyzing changes of plans listed on an online travel service

Abstract

This study clarified the impact of subsidy from the Japanese government to revitalize the tourism industry, which has been negatively affected by COVID-19. Unlike previous studies, this analysis was performed on an accommodation basis rather than on a regional basis. We quantified the reservation status of each accommodation in Japan using the number of reservationable plans at the Online Travel Agency, finding that the number of reservations for many accommodations in 2020 decreased significantly from the previous year due to the influence of COVID-19. On the other hand, the number of accommodations with decreased numbers of reservations was limited during the period when all travels were covered by the subsidy. Moreover, binomial logistic regression analysis with reduced reservations as the dependent variable showed that consumers tended to select higher-priced accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic with or without subsidy. In addition, it was suggested that during the period covered by the subsidy, consumers select accommodations to maximize both the discount amount and the discount rate.