Tours Resume to Japan, Prices 'Very Cheap'

A worker with a Japanese tourism agency in Shanghai displays a promotional brochure to reporters attending a tourism fair on May 12. The words on the board behind him read: "We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of you for the help and support." [China Daily]

Chinese tour groups are again looking to visit Japan following a hiatus in travel to the island country brought on by the earthquake that struck in March, causing a tsunami and a radiation leak at a nuclear power plant.

Major tourism agencies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other large Chinese cities said they have started scheduling trips to Japan again. And because the recent disasters have made the country a less attractive destination, many tour packages they are offering now cost half as much as they had only a few months ago.

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The Beijing-based China Comfort Travel said an inaugural tour group, organized with the help of two other large travel agencies, will embark on Wednesday on a four-day journey to Hokkaido, the second largest of the islands making up Japan. The tourists will constitute the first batch of Chinese to visit Japan after the devastating earthquake, said Yao Yao, marketing manager with the agency.

"Our 30 tourists will enjoy a pleasant cherry blossom season in Japan," he said. "They will also attend a welcome dinner with the mayor of Sapporo, which is the largest city in Hokkaido."

Yao said the price of the tour package will be about 4,000 yuan (US$615), less than half of what such trips had cost a few months ago.

Meanwhile, 18 tourists from Shanghai will make up the first travel group from that city to visit Japan since the disasters. On Thursday, they will embark on a four-day trip to Osaka, said He Jing, communications manager with Ctrip, one of China's leading online travel agencies and the organizer of the tour.

And in Guangzhou, the local GZL International Travel Service has arranged its first trip to Japan after the disasters. Qin Bei, who works in the company, said the tour is fully booked and will depart on Friday.

At the end of April, the National Tourism Administration of China lifted its ban on travel to Japan but continues to advise tourists to avoid Fukushima and other severely hit areas in Japan's northeast region.

According to statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of Chinese tourists going to Japan fell to 62,500 in March, a 49-percent decrease from the number who had gone in the same period last year.

To revive travelers' desires to visit Japan, Chinese agencies have been offering tours at unusually low prices.

"People who choose to travel now will really get some great deals," said Zhang Hongbin, an assistant manager of the Shanghai-based Jinjiang Travel Agency. "Travel agencies and hotels in Japan are offering some really low prices to revive their businesses."

According to Zhang, a four-day trip taking travelers to Osaka, Kobe and Kyodo now costs 1,999 yuan, less than half of what it had cost before the earthquake.

Zhang Jian, who recently signed up for a four-day tour of Tokyo at a travel agency in Guangzhou, said she has never been to Japan. She decided to take the trip now "because it is so cheap."

But other Chinese tourists, fearful of aftershocks and nuclear radiation, are still hesitant.

Japan's tourism authorities are trying to ease their anxieties.

To that end, the Japanese government has made it a point to distribute up-to-date information about travel conditions in Japan, according to Katsuaki Suzuki, director of Japan National Tourism Organization's Shanghai office.