A major Japanese travel agency is expecting the number of domestic travelers during the upcoming spring holiday season to increase by nearly 70 percent from a year ago.

JTB estimates that about 16 million people will travel to domestic destinations between late April and early May. The estimation is based on bookings for accommodations and economic benchmarks.

The figure is up 68.4 percent from last year's spring holiday season when Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures were under a coronavirus state of emergency.

But the number is 33.4 percent lower than the same period in 2019 before the pandemic.

An online survey shows that those who plan to travel will make a longer trip this year. Of more than 1,700 respondents, 36.1 percent said they plan to make a two-day overnight trip. That's a drop of 3.1 percentage points from a year ago.

And 32.6 percent plan to make a three-days-two-nights trip, followed by 17.1 percent planning to travel for four days.

Both travel plans increased by 4 points and 0.8 points respectively.