Tourism fears impact of tsunami tragedy
The impact of the Japanese tsunami disaster on the travel and tourism sector is likely to be severe with inbound and outbound travel plans expected to be affected for several months.
Several countries have warned their citizens about traveling to Japan at this time.
In the first indication of the likely impact on airlines, Air New Zealand has downgraded its full year earnings as a result of the Christchurch earthquake and Japanese tsunami.
Meanwhile, Anake Srishevachart, president of the Thai-Japan Tourism Business Association, said he expected bookings from Japan would slow until the end of this year especially from the affected prefectures, and the capital, Tokyo.
Outbound travel from Thailand is expected to suffer a bigger impact because Thais tourists would fear another quake as well as problems related to nuclear power plants in Japan, the business association said.
Tokyo Disneyland announced it would close temporarily for 10 days while many other concerts and entertainment events have been halted.
The Australian International Visitor Survey for 2010 revealed Japanese visitors to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef reached 104,000 (up 26% on 82,000 in 2009) out of 266,000 Japanese visitors to Australia.
These numbers are likely to dip sharply in 2011 given the likely loss of appetite for travel by Japanese people following the tragic events unfolding this week.
Ian Jarrett
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