The diplomatic dispute between Japan and China continues to worsen. According to reports, as Chinese travelers cancel trips to Japan, Japan could lose as much as US$1.2 billion (RM5 billion) in tourist spending by the end of the year.
Bloomberg News reported, citing data from Chinese marketing technology company Huakai Marketing, that since the Chinese government urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Japan, about 30% of the 1.44 million planned trips from China to Japan by the end of the year have been canceled.
Huakai Marketing president Bert estimates that this will cause Japan to lose at least US$500 million (RM2.1 billion) in tourist spending. This figure could climb to US$1.2 billion.
According to his estimates, group and package tours account for about half of the canceled trips, while individual leisure travel accounts for about 20 percent.
Bert said that after canceling their trips to Japan, some Chinese travelers changed their destinations. Among these, new bookings to Singapore and South Korea have increased by as much as 15% in the past few days; new bookings to Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam have also risen up to 11% compared to last week.
According to official Japanese tourism data, about 25% of international tourists Japan receives each year come from China. In just July to September, spending by Chinese tourists accounted for about 27% of the total, with an average spending of US$1,530 (RM6,366) per person.