World Travel News

Three years after the 2002 bombings, nightclubs on Bali were once again packed with sunburned holidaymakers from around the world and hotels were hard to find on a weekend.

But Saturday’s attacks in two popular tourist districts sent worried visitors running for the airport once again – and stoked fears that this time the damage the terrorists inflicted on the island’s vital tourist sector could be worse.

“I myself do not feel safe, let alone our foreign guests,” said Wayan Linting, a masseur on Bali’s famous Kuta beach. “I have had only one customer today. If things stay like this I worry I will not be able to eat.”

Many visitors on the island said that they would not be cutting their holidays short as a result of the three bombs at crowded restaurants that left at least 26 people killed and more than a 100 injured.

Unlike after the 2002 attacks – which killed 202 people, most of them foreigners – the airport was not flooded with holidaymakers desperate to get on a flight off the island Sunday. And aside from areas close to the bomb sites, most cafes and shops were open as usual.

Queensland’s tourism bosses say they are becoming increasingly concerned by a continuing slide in Japanese visitor numbers.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show Japanese tourists to Australia have slumped by 16 per cent during the past year.

Arrivals for July were down more than 3 per cent from June.

Daniel Gschwind from the Queensland Tourism Industry Council says it is a worrying trend.

“We had a couple of good months early this year, but we had a number of fairly bad months since and we have to remember that the Japanese market has been very good to Queensland, very good to Australia,” he said.

“It has delivered strong visitor numbers and strong yield out of that market as well.”

Source: ABC net.au

Yahoo Japan Corp. and Recruit Co. announced Tuesday that they will tie up on online travel reservations, a growing market dominated by Rakuten Inc.

Beginning January, information on hotels and inns that have contracts with Recruit’s jalan.net site will be posted on Yahoo’s Yahoo! Travel site.

As a result, Yahoo will be handling reservations for about 15,000 domestic facilities, close to Rakuten’s 17,000.

The alliance will initially cover domestic facilities only, but Yahoo and Recruit are considering expanding to overseas travel.

Yahoo, the third largest player in online travel reservations market, currently serves about 8,500 hotels and inns. Recruit, the second largest, handles reservations for about 12,000 facilities.

About 5,500 facilities have contracts with both companies.

Recruit expects the heavy traffic on Yahoo’s Web site to bolster sales of its own reservation services.

Rakuten Travel handles reservations totaling about 11 million nights a year. By comparison, Yahoo! Travel handled 1.65 million nights and the jalan.net site 6.41 million in fiscal 2004.

More: asahi.com

Police have arrested a travel agency employee on suspicion of using tourists as smugglers of 13 kilograms of stimulants through Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, the largest amount seized at the airport ever, the police and customs office said Friday.

Akira Miyano, 47, who organized a bargain group tour to Thailand, and five people who joined the tour, were arrested. Two others who were to receive the stimulants in Japan — Masao Fujii, 61, a business operator, and Hideki Ao, 37, a business executive — were also arrested, they said.

More: japantoday.com

At the beginning of the 1990s Japan’s currency, the yen, was so strong that it caused an intense controversy in Australia.

Some people feared that Japanese buying power was so strong that many of our precious national assets would soon be owned by investors from Tokyo.

Fifteen years on, it is Australia’s dollar that is so strong that the Australian tourism industry is now worried that Japanese people will not travel here any more.

Many Japanese are cutting costs where they can, apparently booking fewer holidays to Australia.

Even the most popular destinations such as far north Queensland may be lucky to beat last year’s Japanese visitor arrivals.