As protesters gathered in cities across China against the Japanese nationalisation of control over the disputed Diaoyu / Senkaku Islands the tourism industry in Japan comes under pressure as Chinese travel agencies appear to be halting group tours to Japan.
Apparently, Ctrip.com International Ltd. (CTRP), owner of China’s biggest travel portal, has scalled down promoting Japan ahead of a weeklong Chinese holiday starting Oct. 1, while some travel agents are cancelling trips. According to a Bloomberg Business week article, a CTRP spokesperson said, “We want to express our anger toward the Japanese government, even though we have to sacrifice some commercial interest”.
A network of some 5,000 travel agents across China, is cancelling and refunding all its Japan trips, while the parent company of China’s biggest low-cost carrier, has seen a 40% drop in bookings to Japan according a spokesman for the airline unit. New York-listed Ctrip said it has stopped advertising Japan holidays in newspapers, by e-mail and on its home page. Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (Ctrip) is a NASDAQ listed travel service provider for hotel accommodations, airline tickets and packaged tours in China and aggregates information on hotels and flights and enables its customers to make hotel and flight bookings.
During tensions in 2010 over a shipping collision, Japan tourism slipped some 16% and there are fears that a similar affect could occur according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. With Japan still recovering from a slump as it tries to recovery from last year’s tsunami and nuclear-power crisis, a further slowdown could add to the difficulties facing Japan’s tourism industry
