Travel agents report sluggish sales of Beijing Olympics package tours

Sales of package tours to the Beijing Olympics have been sluggish in Japan, reflecting China's tarnished image from a series of incidents, including food poisoning cases, and the lack of tickets for the finals of popular events, according to travel agency officials.

Any takers?: A travel agency in Minato Ward, Tokyo, displays brochures for Beijing Olympics package tours. KYODO PHOTO

Major travel agencies have so far seen sales of tours to the Beijing Olympics, which start Aug. 8, standing at only 50 percent to 70 percent of their targets, the officials said.

They had set relatively ambitious sales goals in view of Beijing's geographical proximity from Japanese airports. It takes roughly four hours to fly to Beijing from Japan.

JTB Corp., which sold tours to the 2004 Athens Olympics to 3,000 people, has targeted 10,000 tourists this time, but so far only 7,000 have paid for packages, it said.

Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. and Nippon Travel Agency Co. said their sales have been only 50 percent to 70 percent of their respective goals. In response, ANA Sales Co., an All Nippon Airways Co. arm, has reduced the price of tours that include women's volleyball, table tennis and badminton events — ranging from ¥200,000 to ¥300,000 — by up to ¥100,000.

Travel agency officials said China's tarnished image from food poisoning cases in January involving pesticide-contaminated "gyoza" dumplings, as well as its crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators, have affected sales.

The scarcity of tickets for final matches in a range of events popular with Japanese, including judo, swimming and wrestling, in which good results are expected for Japanese athletes, has also had an adverse effect, they said.