Posted at 12:01 p.m., Tuesday, September 3, 2002
Japan overseas travel still lags
Bloomberg News Service
Japan's travel agents lost a total of about 400 billion yen ($34 billion) in sales to date from the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, as travelers shied away from overseas trips, the Japan Association of Travel Agents said.Overseas travel demand in Japan "will recover in the second half of the business year" ending March 2003, said JATA Chairman Koji Shinmachi, who is also president of Jalpak, Japan Airlines Co.'s travel affiliate.
Demand to Hawai'i and other parts of the United States may lag the recovery in travel to other destinations. "The terrorist incident was not the only reason" for the big decline in the number of Japanese tourists there, Shinmachi said.
