JAPAN’S tourism is well on the recovery path as Singaporeans regain their confidence in Japan, with travel agencies reporting that year-end bookings have returned to pre-3/11 levels.
Last weekend’s NATAS Holidays 2013 saw the re-emergence of Japan as a popular holiday option following its lacklustre performance during the post-tsunami period in 2011.
ASA Holidays’ head of marketing communications, Eileen Oh, hailed Japan as the top performing destination, saying: “Japan performed exceptionally well, and we have managed to reach pre-2011 booking numbers to Japan for this whole year.”
Likewise, Alicia Seah, CTC Travel’s senior vice president of marketing and public relations, reported that Japan had been a hot favourite. She said: “Japan recorded almost double the number of bookings compared to the same time last year, and the sales for Japan (at the 2013 NATAS fair) will even surpass the (sales at the NATAS fair from before the) pre-disaster period.
“The full confidence and recovery to travel back to Japan is evident from February 2013 onwards, especially after the yen started depreciating against the strong Singapore dollar (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 20, 2013),” she said.
Seah added that Central Japan was making a strong comeback and many travellers were heading back to Tokyo.
Eva Wu, marketing and communications manager of SA Tours, also ranked Japan among their top three selling destinations, with the other two being China and South Korea.
According to NATAS, the top five most popular destinations at NATAS Holidays 2013 were Europe, Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan respectively.
Anita Tan, COO of NATAS, also highlighted the growing appeal of exotic destinations such as Finland, Turkey, Iran, South Africa, Columbia and Peru. “Singaporeans are extremely well-travelled, and they are starting to look beyond the tried-and-tested destinations for something to excite them and trigger their wanderlust.”
The three-day show, which featured 1125 booths and 160 exhibitors, welcomed a total of 62,744 visitors, and NATAS estimated the overall sales to be between S$95 (US$75) and S$100 million.
While this registered a slight dip from last year’s 65,822 visitors and sales of S$108 million, Anita Tan, COO of NATAS, was “very pleased” with the turnout.
