Tourists shun Japan after Fukushima discharge

A sign of a reshuffle in China's outbound tourism market for the National Day holiday is being witnessed following Japan's unilateral decision to discharge nuclear-contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.

Chinese travel agencies said they had already received cancellation requests from some tourists who had booked tours to Japan.

At the same time, major Chinese online travel operators such as Trip.com, Tongcheng Travel, Tuniu and Lvmama have quickly adjusted their marketing strategies and display pages to remove Japan from obvious positions.

"We have kept receiving cancellation requests on trip orders to Japan in the recent two days," said the head of a big travel agency, who declined to be identified. "Some guests planning to travel to Japan during the National Day holiday now hold a wait-and-see attitude."

Amy Wang, a resident in Shanghai, planned to travel to Japan with her friends during the holiday, but she is giving it a second thought now.

"I originally planned to go there and buy some cosmetic products at the same time, and was already preparing relevant materials for visa," she said. "But now, we will very likely change our destination."

Japan turned out to be the most popular tourist destination among Chinese travelers for the National Day holiday following the expansion of the list of outbound destinations for Chinese tour groups released in August by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Shanghai-based online travel operator Trip.com put about 2,000 tour products to Japan onto shelves after the expansion.

Chinese travel operators said they would now make adjustments on marketing plans and had suspended Japanese tourism promotion plans.

Shanghai-based online travel operator Lvmama is now promoting itineraries to Germany, the United Kingdom and Northern European countries for the holiday instead.

The impact may linger for a very long time, said Zhang Zhining, a tourism industry insider.