The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will subsidize travel agencies that build sightseeing tours in which visitors operate drones themselves, according to a jGrants portal listing for the city's drone-utilization tour development support program. Only travel operators headquartered or maintaining a main office in Tokyo can apply.
The intended users are visitors who face difficulties with mobility or communication, including people with disabilities and older travelers. The listing frames the goal as creating, selling, and running travel products that let anyone enjoy sightseeing in Tokyo and experience the region's appeal. Tokyo describes the effort as support for new technology that delivers what it calls stress-free tourism, part of the city's wider push on accessible tourism.
Eligible spending falls into two buckets. Product-development costs cover on-site surveys and the systems needed to let a tour group actually fly and use drones together. Product-sales costs stretch to advertising placement and promotional tools, though the supplied program excerpt cuts off mid-sentence on that second category, so it is unclear what else counts as an eligible sales expense.
The excerpt reviewed for this article does not specify a subsidy rate, a maximum funding amount, or an application window. Travel operators weighing a proposal will need to check the jGrants posting itself, or contact the metropolitan government directly, for those terms.