(Yicai) Aug. 28 -- Travel bookings for Japan by Chinese tourists have started to decline after Japanese authorities began to release radioactive wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.

Some Chinese tour group members have also canceled their trips to Japan, with leading travel agencies adjusting their promotion strategies for China’s upcoming National Day holiday, which runs from Sept. 29 through Oct. 6, several firms told Yicai.

Travel industry firms will stop vigorously promoting trips to Japan, and some may even drop related marketing plans, they added. E-tourism website Lvmama is pushing tours to Germany, the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe instead.

“Some tourists have withdrawn from Japan tours in the past few days, while others who planned to travel during the National Day holiday are taking a wait-and-see approach and have not made bookings,” a manager at a large travel agency said. 

Because of safety concerns over the discharge of nuclear wastewater into the ocean, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan is expected to tumble over the holiday period, said Zhang Zhining, chief executive of Kaopu Tourism.

Japan’s tourism economy could stagnate due to the long-term drop in Chinese visitors, if they change their holiday plans, Zhang added.

On Aug. 10, Japan was included in China's third batch of countries and regions approved for outbound group tours and became the most searched for destination, surpassing Thailand and Singapore, according to data from Chinese online travel agency Ctrip.

“Ctrip has launched more than 2,000 Japan-related products,” the person overseeing them said. “According to previous data, tourism to Japan was likely to peak before and after the National Day holiday.”

Editor: Martin Kadiev