JR Kyushu and various airlines released their travel forecasts for Golden Week (4/25~5 /6), which reveal the more people will likely be travelling during the four-day stretch in latter half of the holiday period. JR says its Shinkansen reservations for the first half of the period are not as robust as most years since there is a weekday sandwiched in between the initial weekend and the first holiday on 4/29. The outbound and inbound rushes are expected to peak on 5/2 and 5/6, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of Korean tourists booking reservations on high speed ferries is up 23.3% year-on-year, and when the number of Japanese passengers is included, passenger numbers are set to outstrip the previous year for the first time in two years. The major airlines are forecasting peak congestion on the Fukuoka-Haneda route on 4/26 and 5/3 for outbound flights and 5/6 for inbound ones. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun 4/19
