Japan retracts free flights to boost tourism offer

Stock photo, Tokyo: PA

Last year, the Japan Tourism Agency revealed a plan to offer 10,000 free flights to the country in 2012 to boost its ailing tourism industry following its devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The tourist office has announced that the budget for the plan has been declined as 'recovery from the earthquake continues to be a pressing issue', according to USA Today.

Head of Japan's PR and marketing in London, Kylie Clark, has said in a statement:

"We realise that this announcement is going to disappoint thousands of people around the world, but we hope people will understand how insensitive it would appear for the Japanese Government to give people free flights to Japan when the cities, towns and villages devastated by the tsunami are still in desperate need of funding for reconstruction.

"We also would not want people thinking that the generous donations given from around the world to aide those affected by the disaster was being spent on giving people free flights.

"The places most popular with visitors to Japan – Tokyo, Kyoto, Hakone, Osaka, Hiroshima, Sapporo and Okinawa – were outside the earthquake and tsunami affected areas. Please do not let the fact that there will be no free flights put you off visiting Japan. There are lots of great deals available and Japan is ready and waiting to welcome back visitors more warmly than ever before."

The 11 March earthquake killed 16,000 people and triggered explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Tourist numbers dropped by 50% year-on-year in the three months that followed the earthquake and tsunami, picking up slightly to a 32% drop by August 2011.

But, as reiterated above, the government is keen to reassure tourists who are staying away that Japan is safe, apart from the immediate area around the destroyed nuclear plant.


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