Trips to Middle East losing popularity among Japanese

[webfact]

Trips to Middle East losing popularity among Japanese

Tokyo (The Yomiuri Shimbun) -- The deadly hostage incident perpe-trated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group is creating a great deal of anxiety for those planning trips to the Middle East.

As ISIL threatened further terrorist attacks targeting Japanese, travel companies and the Foreign Ministry are seeing a surging number of inquiries. Some travellers have already canceled their reservations or changed their destinations.

Jordanian travel company Enjoy Petra received three cancellations of trips to Jordan since the hostage crisis came to light on January 20, according to the firm's branch in Toshima Ward, Tokyo. Customers who canceled the trip were planning to visit the nation in the period from February to April. Those customers expressed their concerns about security and worries about the situation in the area, the company said.

Jordan is a popular destination, with famous attractions such as the Dead Sea and the ancient ruins of Petra, a World Heritage site.

"I'm afraid we won't have any applications for trips for a while," said Machiko Tanaka, a staff member of the branch.

Reservations for trips in January and February dropped 20 percent compared to an average year, according to a Tokyo-based travel company hosting individual tours to the Middle East.

"The image of [the Middle East being] dangerous overwhelms everything," a staff member in charge said.

The same tendency can also be seen at a major travel company in Tokyo, with some of its customers changing their destinations from the Middle East to Europe, the United States and Asia.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Trips-to-Middle-East-losing-popularity-among-Japan-30253470.html


-- The Nation 2015-02-05

[Jingthing]

Israel is still safe enough for the Japanese:

*Video removed*

[Showbags]

Losing interest in middle east ....No shlt sherlock....

[uptheos]

Israel is still safe enough for the Japanese:

Israel is the only safe country in the Middle East.........unless rockets are reigning down of course.

I'm glad I saw the wonderful sights of the Middle East 40 years ago.

[Costas2008]

Israel is still safe enough for the Japanese:

JT, The man of many talents, The man with most posts on TVF, The winner of the POTY 2014...............

Unfortunately most of us mortals do not speak Japanese but we are just here to admire you

[Jingthing]

There are English subtitles.

[NeverSure]

Israel is still safe enough for the Japanese:

JT, The man of many talents, The man with most posts on TVF, The winner of the POTY 2014...............

Unfortunately most of us mortals do not speak Japanese but we are just here to admire you

Still haven't gotten over losing, huh? Do you need your mama?

Isn't about time you left JT alone and stopped the nonsense?

[monkeycountry]

The question is, why did they have any interest in the middle east to begin with?

[Jingthing]

Archaeological sites in Jordan have great touristic appeal.

[Emster23]

They pay someone for this sort of brilliant analysis? "Duh" first came to mind.....

[Nemesis7]

Of course they will stop, any body would. Who wants to go to an active war zone to tour around?

[Lissos]

The question is, why did they have any interest in the middle east to begin with?

Plenty of reasons, but ones only in the awareness of those who chose to visit the middle east with prior knowledge of tthose or were pleasantly surprised by them upon visiting. I consider the Middle East to be a fascinating and very rewarding region to travel in various ways , with only minor occasional practical difficulties compared to other parts of the world that are very popular. It is changing fast however, and that cannot be denied. Areas I went through only a handfull of years ago are now arguably suicidal to go to right now. At the time though, it wasn't so. Nobody could convince me to return to Syria now for example, but Jordan and Egypt may still get visits from me even though arguably risk factors may have risen a tad in certain areas. Examples of incidents even from the 90s in which foreigners were either caught up or directly targetted even in places like Egypt, could be dragged up that would make both Egypt and Jordan look scary to visit, but then again those are incidents that took place within a wide expanse of non-events that nobody remembers at all because there is nothing news worthy. Armed with a basic foundational undestanding of the local politics and culture, a visitor could just as easily spend months enjoying aspects of the middle east without running into trouble. Also, they could be plain unlucky.

Currently, the terror threat level for the United Kingdom is listed as 'Severe', one only notch down from its maximum of 'Critical' (imminent).