According to ATOR, there are no volunteers from Russia to fly to Japan now. Such information was announced by Aeroflot. The flights from Tokyo to Moscow have almost 100% occupancy. The Russian tour operators incur the serious losses. Earthquake, tsunami and radiation background made the tourists to change their plans. The operators note a great number of cancellations of the trips for the end of March and the beginning of April. The problem is aggravated by the fact that Japan…
According to ATOR, there are no volunteers from Russia to fly to Japan now. Such information was announced by Aeroflot. The flights from Tokyo to Moscow have almost 100% occupancy. The Russian tour operators incur the serious losses. Earthquake, tsunami and radiation background made the tourists to change their plans. The operators note a great number of cancellations of the trips for the end of March and the beginning of April.
The problem is aggravated by the fact that Japan will be closed for the most popular tourist period: March (4437 tourists in 2010) and April (5021 tourists in 2010). Such period is popular for Japanese cherry tree (Sakura) flowering.
Noting the average price for the tour to Sakura flowering (about 100 thousand rubles) and on condition that the travel flow could remain on the level of last year, the tour operators may lose about 900 million rubles (about 30 million US dollars). The majority of the tourists arrive in Japan from the Far East of Russia.
Japan is not a mass destination in Russia. About 51 500 Russians visited the country in 2010. In general, 8.6 million tourists visited Japan in 2010.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, all the tourist groups have already left Japan. The Federal Agency for Tourism recommends the tour operators to take all the necessary measures in order to secure the Russian tourists in Japan and render assistance for return home. According to the estimates of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Japan, more than 1000 Russians with the families work in the country now.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
