Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Instead of deciding on a destination, travellers in Japan are leaving it to luck.
It’s a trend called ‘random trips’ that is taking off in Japan – and travel companies are encouraging it, to help revive travel after the COVID-19 slump.
Random trip tickets
Japan’s railways are offering random trip tickets at big discounts.
Travellers on West Japan Railway (JR West) can use an app called ‘Saikoro Kippu,’ which randomly selects a destination for them out of seven stations in western Japan, according to a newspaper.
The ¥5,000 ($35.61) random trip ticket has a discount of between 45% and 83%, depending on the destination.
Random trip tickets are also being offered in eastern Japan.
From December, travellers on East Japan Railway (JR East) will be able to buy a random trip package called ‘Dokokani Byun’.
For ¥6,000 ($42.74), one of four destinations across three train lines with 47 stops will be randomly selected for them.
Airlines started the random trip craze.
Japan Airlines started offering random trips in 2016 and Japanese budget airline Peach Aviation offered flight tickets to random destinations last summer.
