Feb 04 (NHK) - A Japanese tourism industry body estimates that package tours involving at least 400,000 Chinese tourists will be canceled due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
The Japan Association of Travel Agents says its member agencies prepared tourist visa application papers for Chinese tourists who were scheduled to visit Japan between January 27 and March 31. It says the number of applications reached around 400,000.
The association suggests almost all of them are likely to be canceled because Chinese travel agents suspended overseas package tours from January 27 on the request of the Chinese government.
The figure announced does not include applications of groups arriving on cruise ships, individual tourists or those who plan to visit Japan on business. So, the total number of cancellations is estimated to be larger.
The association says Chinese visitors to Japan in the first half of January far outnumbered those in the same period of last year, but that cancellations are now including individual tourists.
