No refunds for Japan group tours past March guaranteed
- Source: Global Times
- [08:26 March 15 2011]
- Comments
A file photo of a man entering a travel agency advertising Japan tour packages in the city earlier last year. Photo: IC
By Yao Fangqin
The local tourism administration said Monday it is unsure of whether Shanghai tourists wanting to cancel their trips to Japan for April and beyond will be legally guaranteed to receive a full refund.
The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration made the comments after local tourists, who planned trips to the country hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake for March, qualify for remuneration in the immediate aftermath of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on Friday.
It said that it will wait for direction on the matter from the National Tourism Administration, following reports from local travel agencies saying that tour groups to Japan this month would be canceled and refunded given the current situation in Japan.
"There is currently no Chinese regulation that pertains to such a situation," said Gu Jianbin, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration. "Once a decision is made on the matter by the national body, we will follow accordingly."
While Shanghai tourists are not prohibited from traveling to the region, Chinese government officials have advised citizens to stay away from Japan during this time, as at least 400 aftershocks have since hit the country and as concerns mount over radiation leaks from Fukushima's nuclear plant.
Local travel agencies said Monday that the situation has kept them busy as clients cancel their spring travel to Japan and demand full refunds.
He Jing, a press officer from Ctrip, an online travel services provider, said that although the company has established a full compensation package for tourists booked trips to Japan within a week of the disaster, refund policies for those planning to travel there from April onwards have yet to be decided.
"We'll keep a close eye on the situation in Japan and the response of local travelers," she told the Global Times Monday. "But we just can't guarantee any promises right now."
Meanwhile, Jiang Weihao, deputy manager of Japan travel from Shanghai Spring International Travel Service, another major travel services provider in the city, admitted that Japan sales for the peak March and April sakura viewing season have plummeted since the country's natural disaster.
"We've already received lots of cancellations for Japan bookings; we're working on how to deal with the situation," he told the Global Times Monday.
According to the Shanghai Exit-Entry Frontier Inspection Station Monday, tour group travel to Japan fell 75.8 percent on Sunday compared to the same time last year, while the same figure for individual travel dropped by 43.9 percent.
Meanwhile, Shanghai tourists like Xu, who asked only to be identified by her surname Monday, said that she would not consider traveling to Japan until at least next year, when she could better assess the situation.
"I'd postpone my trip to Japan for a shorter amount of time if the country had only been hit by an earthquake and tsunami," she told the Global Times Monday. "But I'm too worried about the nuclear situation to even think about going there for a while yet."
Xu said that she had several friends who were planning trips to Japan this spring, but were also halting their travels there for similar reasons.