Are tours to Japan affected after earthquakes and airline incidents?

Vietravel Tourism Company has just released information about the situation of tours departing to Japan after this country suffered a natural disaster and aviation accident in just the first 2 days of the new year.

According to Vietravel, around the time of the earthquakes, the company had 500 customers visiting different cities in Japan. Of these, about 20 customers went to the ancient village of Shirakawago, Gifu province - about 350 km from Tokyo.

"Most of the tourist groups have itineraries in major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Mount Fuji, Matsuyama, Nagoya, all of which are located in the southeastern region of Japan, so they were not much affected or only felt slight aftershocks from the earthquakes. Vietravel ensures that tourists are still safe, and their itineraries have not changed much due to natural disasters," said a Vietravel representative.

A tourist attraction in Japan

Up to now, many Vietravel groups have finished their tours and returned to Vietnam.

Vietravel also immediately worked with partners in Japan to promptly come up with a response scenario, preparing a calm mindset to best serve customers on tour.

For customers who purchase Japan tours departing in early 2024 and Lunar New Year, the company is willing to support rescheduling the tour to a more suitable time or can switch to tour routes in the Southeast Asian and Northeast Asian markets.

Many other travel companies also said that all tourist groups are safe and are still following normal tour schedules. Ms. Doan Thi Thanh Tra, Director of Marketing Department - Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said that currently, tours to Japan are still open for sale and customers are still booking tours for the end of January 2023. The earthquake area does not affect the tours being exploited. If there is a risk of unsafety, travel companies will stop exploiting tours, but at present, there is no impact.

"Vietluxtour has 4 tourist groups visiting Japan that have just finished their journey. These tours take visitors to central city routes, not near earthquake-hit locations, so they are not affected. The company always updates information to promptly direct and provide information to customers interested in Japan tours. It is not the peak tourist season in Japan, so there are not too many tourist groups coming here," said Ms. Tran Thi Bao Thu, Communications Director of Vietluxtour Travel Company.

Travel companies say demand from Vietnamese tourists booking tours to Japan during cherry blossom season in 2024 is still high.

At TSTtourist Company, the demand for tours to Japan during cherry blossom season is still high. Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications and Marketing of TSTtourist, said that there are no signs of impact from the recent aviation incident in Japan.

Regarding the earthquake, the reception of tour requests for the period from cherry blossom season onwards is normal. However, the company still closely follows the actual situation of the locality through official information updated from Japan. Up to now, the earthquake affected area has not directly affected most of the main tourist routes.

No customers have postponed or canceled tours to Japan.

Ms. Tran Phuong Linh, Marketing Director - Information Technology, Ben Thanh Tourist Company, informed that the company is operating tours to Japan during the Lunar New Year and tours to enjoy the Japanese cherry blossom season in 2024; there have been no cases of tourists wanting to cancel or postpone their Japan tours. Cases of tour cancellation or postponement will be applied according to policies and regulations.

The company also has a policy to facilitate tourists to transfer to tours of equivalent value.

At the time of the earthquake, BenThanh Tourist did not have any tour routes that passed through this location. The tour routes that the company is currently operating are also quite far from the earthquake area.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tour-du-lich-den-nhat-ban-co-bi-anh-huong-sau-dong-dat-va-su-co-hang-khong-196240104104618659.htm