October-December tour bookings to China, South Korea down by half

Reservations as of late September for package tours to China and South Korea during the October-December period have plunged to less than half of year-earlier levels against the backdrop of deteriorating relations over territorial issues, four major travel agencies said."Tourism demand will likely remain stagnant for a long while," said a senior official of a major travel agency about tours to China, given demonstrations in the country, where Japanese shops and manufacturing facilities have been attacked, and Japanese nationals assaulted.

The agencies said they are planning to shift resources to tours to Hawaii and Southeast Asia.At JTB, the largest of the four, bookings for China tours dropped 51 percent. "Cancellations have slowed down, compared with mid-September, when anti-Japan demonstrations spread (in China), but new reservations are sluggish, as a wait-and-see attitude still prevails," a JTB official said.Bookings for China tours fell 64 percent at KNT, 56 percent at Nippon Travel and 48 percent at Jalpak.

For South Korean destinations, reservations have dropped 64 percent at KNT and 56 percent at Jalpak, and have fallen by half at JTB and by 39 percent at Nippon Travel.Compared with China, however, tensions over Japan's territorial dispute with South Korea have eased somewhat. The yen also remains strong against the won and South Korean TV dramas and popular music still attract a big audience in Japan."If circumstances remain unchanged, (South Korea-bound) bookings should recover earlier than for China," a travel agency official said.