Australia tourists to Japan down

Although natural disasters were “not unique to Japan”, the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) Australia executive director Yukio Yamashita yesterday confirmed Australian tourist numbers to the country since March’s earthquake had plummeted.

“March figures ... have drastically decreased after the earthquake and went down 50 per cent to 10,900 people,” Mr Yamashita told Australian tourism representatives at a post-earthquake Japan briefing in Sydney.“April figures are also expected to be lower.”

The decrease in Aussie visitor numbers to Japan stands in stark contrast to figures from January and February 2011, which were the “highest on record so far”.According to Mr Yamashita, 30,700 Australians visited the country in January, a year-on-year increase of 14.1 per cent, whilst February recorded figures of 21,500, up 4.2 per cent. andnbsp;

Talking to e-Travel Blackboard, Mr Yamashita said although JNTO “respected” the Australian government’s travel advisories, he would like to see them lowered from their present “High degree of caution” status.andnbsp;andnbsp;andnbsp; “We would like to relax or downgrade the warnings to Japan,” Mr Yamashita told e-Travel Blackboard, adding that in many areas in Japan there were no “obstructions” to travel.

Source = etravelblackboard