Industry update from Japan (updated 12 April 2011)
It has now been one month since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan. The northeast is recovering from the natural disaster while experiencing aftershocks and the uncertainty of radiation leakage from the local nuclear power plants. However, Western Japanese is not impacted at all and businesses are operating as usual. Tourism Australia will continue to monitor the situation with close contact with the Japanese outbound tourism industry. We will constantly update the Australian industry on the expected impacts on inbound tourism from Japan.
Impact on Australian travel
To monitor the impacts on inbound business caused by the disaster, Tourism Australia Japan has conducted ongoing surveys with key Japanese tourism industry partners. For the three months of March to May, it is estimated 5,500 travellers cancelled their trips to Australia. Agents revealed that for these three months, travel to Australia has dropped 40% compared to the same three months last year.
Travel agents
Major travel agent businesses have returned to normal operations. From this week they have resumed promotion of holidays, including overseas travel, through newspaper advertising, retail promotions or direct mail.
Media
TV programs and newspaper have returned to “usual” programming or page layouts and major companies have started to advertise again.
Airlines
Qantas flights from Narita continue to operate via Hong Kong with amended schedule times.
Visit by the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister, The Hon. Julia Gillard MP, will be visiting Tokyo for four days from 20 April. On 22 April, a goodwill dinner is planned and Tourism Australia will be inviting Japanese trade VIPs and media to the event.
Tourism Australia marketing activity
The following marketing activities are planned by Tourism Australia and partners.
> Retail agent famil with Japan Association of Travel Agents to NSW, QLD and NT from mid May
> Queensland recovery campaign from mid May with key wholesalers
> School teachers seminar in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka in June
Read the latest visitor arrivals data.
Read the latest Quarterly Market Update.