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Japan's meltdown is a tourist's delight?

by Global Post

Already burdened by the triple calamity of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear misadventure, Japan now faces a tourist meltdown as visitor numbers have halved since the March quake. Japan's difficulty, however, is proving to be the traveler's opportunity. Hotels have slashed their rates in a bid to draw back some of the 8.6 million people that visited in 2010. Numbers were down drastically March to June, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) but are picking up slightly. An estimated 433,100 foreign tourists visited Japan in June, down 36.0 percent from a year earlier but slower than the previous three months' year-on-year falls of more than 50 percent, says the government. (Global Post)