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Business
China's Boycott of the JATA World Travel Fair
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
JATA China Space
By Makiko Segawa
Tokyo -- The sign reads, "Please acknowledge that the China National Tourist Office is not conducting an exhibition for certain reasons - JATA World Tourism Congress and Travel Fair Organizing Committee."
This is what the tens of thousands of visitors to the JATA World Travel Fair in Tokyo were greeted with instead of the customary China travel exhibition.
"JATA" is the acronym for the Japan Association of Travel Agents.
PanOrient News inquired about the details behind this move, and here is what we discovered.
Chinese tourism was supposed to be one of the top ten attractions at the expo in Tokyo from September 24th-26th, according to the JATA office.
However, from the beginning China did not begin construction of its booth. Taking note of this curious fact, the JATA office called the Chinese authorities on the afternoon of September 23rd to confirm their participation.
The China tourist office responded, "We will not participate in the event, but would like to keep the space." The result was what the visitors to the exhibition later witnessed: A vacant site with a white signboard announcing that there would be no China exhibition "for certain reasons."
According to JATA, this was the very first time for a country to make a sudden cancellation ever since the international travel fair began in 2003.
The JATA website says that the travel fair is Asia's largest in terms of the number of participating countries. Since 2004, it has pulled in more than 100,000 visitors annually for the three-day event. As of September 8th of this year, JATA announced that the event would feature 139 participating countries and 685 private entities.
Despite China's sudden cancellation, the 111,232 people who joined the event this year established a new record, surpassing last year's total of 110,784.
And although mainland China did not participate, Hong Kong and Macao maintained booths at the fair.
Ritsuko Kaneko, 38, an office worker from Funabashi City, Chiba, told PanOrient News, "I was really surprised to see that China really cancelled their participation at the expo. I am shocked by this harsh behavior. It is indeed very severe toward ordinary people."
An official of the travel agency of Bhutan remarked, "Tourism is for peace and harmony. It is not for dividing people. We should promote understanding of each other and it is not something into which we should bring national disagreements. I do not approve of China's boycott of JATA."
The manager of a tourism company in Oman who goes by the single name of Joe, said, "For what did they do this? This is a people's event and not for the government! Tourism is the biggest industry in many countries. China will certainly lose out through this cancellation. I want to say to both Japan and China: 'Forget the past and look for the future!'"
The China National Tourist Office announced that, in 2009, the number of Japanese travelers visiting China amounted to more than 3.3 million. In line with Chinese economic growth, the number has surged: In 1996, it was just over 1.5 million.
According to a 2007 survey, Japan represents the Number Two country in terms of annual visitors to China.
The number of Chinese tourists to Japan was more than one million last year, according to Japanese government figures.
Makiko Segawa is a staff writer of PanOrient News.
PanOrient News
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