Specialist Japan tour operator Inside Japan Tours has set up a tsunami relief fund with the aim of raising £25,000 to help victims of the disaster.
The Bristol-based operator raised just over £2,000 within 24 hours of launching the fund on Tuesday evening. It is emailing customers this week to encourage donations to the fund.
A spokesman said: “We are all concerned about people in the region and all our staff are affected in some way as we have all worked and lived in Japan; it really hurts us all.”
Money raised by the operator will go to Civic Force, a charity established to respond to large scale natural disasters in Japan.
The operator has three tours due to depart to Japan in the next two weeks and is offering customers a 5% thank you discount for rebooking tours at a later date. All tours are going ahead. The next tour to the north of Japan is due to leave in July and is under review.
“We have had a number of cancellations but at the moment most people are sitting tight and rebooking for May or later,” added the spokesman.
Inside Japan Tours is a member of the Association of Independent Tour Operators, which has six member companies that operate to Japan. They had 100 passengers in Japan at the time of the tsunami and have 1,000 holidaymakers due to travel to the country in the next month, at the start of the popular Cheery Blossom season.
Aito chairman Derek Moore said no customers or staff had been directly affected by the disaster. He added: “Our operators are in touch with their customers and monitoring the situation on a 24 hour basis. It’s wait and see time.”
Kuoni, Collette Worldwide, Cox & Kings and Explore are among the operators which had tours planned for Japan next week. Kuoni has now dropped Japan from its tour, while Explore and Collette have cancelled their tours.
Anyone who wants to donate towards Inside Japan’s relief fund should go to www.justgiving.com/insidejapan.