Trips to Japan,Substantial Number Cancelled or Postponed

Travel agencies said that a substantial number of its customers have either cancelled or postponed their trips to Japan, owing to the devastating situation and radiation concerns in the country.

In view of serious disruptions to air and train services, CTC Travel said that 100 customers who are supposed to depart from 11-13 March 2011 primarily to Tokyo had to cancel their trips.

Due to the closure of main attractions and theme parks such as Disneyland Hello Kitty Land, the travel agency said that passengers had to cancel, postpone or change their trips.

Alicia Seah, CTC Travel’s senior vice-president of marketing, said that Japan is a popular travel destination during this time of the year since it is the school holidays in March and a peak season for the country which is experiencing the cherry blossom season.

The travel agency had about 1,000 travellers into all parts of Japan till mid April 2011 but said that a 80% of its customers have either postponed their trips to Japan or changed their destination to countries in nearby regions such as Hong Kong.

“We are keeping updated information from our overseas land operator and Ministry of Foreign Affairs diligently and are currently negotiating with airlines on their cancellation/refund policies,” said Seah.

CTC will also cancel all group travels to the city of Sendai and the Tohoku region which was hugely affected by the 8.9 monster quake and suffered destruction caused by the tsunami.

She also noted that Sendai located in the north-eastern side of Japan, was also an up and coming tourist location, before it was struck by the natural disasters.

The situation in Japan could also affect the number of future bookings that the agency could receive especially for the holiday season in May/ June, said Seah.

“The current situation will certainly take a toil on bookings for the coming peak holiday season in May/June 2011, although this is also highly dependent on the pace of containment and recovery of the current situation,” she said.

But at this point, all SQ flights to and from Japan are operating as scheduled and customers are advised to check its website regularly for updates.

SIA said that it will waive administrative fees for refund, re-booking or re-routing for customers holding confirmed tickets issued on or before 11 March 2011 for travel to and from all cities in Japan from 11 March to 10 April 2011, both dates inclusive. This is also applicable to KrisFlyer redemption tickets.