My goodness, that's some serious denial ABD is in! Japan just opened to business travelers and students the start of March, but there's no indication that they have any plans to open to tourists any time soon. May seems HIGHLY unlikely, *maybe* June, but even that is doubtful. So sorry they are dragging you guys through this. It's such an amazing trip, but you want to get the full experience. I can't see how ABD can offer you that.
!). I can pull the plug on our plans with 24 hours notice and don't have any deposits on hotels or bookings (except for a half day zookeeper experience at the Edinburgh Zoo for us and I hired a photographer through Flytographer for dd's 20th birthday pics in Edinburgh). I really love planning our own trips, though would still consider a tour operator for logistically complicated trips (like ABD Japan, China, Peru, etc.).Boy do I feel awful for folks booked on summer, 2022 Japan trips. As @sayhello mentioned, May seems very unlikely, June extremely optimistic. For folks booked, travel operators have to realize that if these trips don't go, their customers will want to make alternative arrangements. If they're going to cancel, they need to do it now so people can make plans accordingly. I am so glad that our next few trips have been put together and executed by my favorite trip planner (me
I totally agree, but unfortunately this has actually been ABD's policy for *years*. Granted, pre-pandemic, cancellations were rare, but they always reserved the right to cancel at any time up until departure, and only confirmed trips if they felt like it. I've had multiple trips that were never officially confirmed.
Well, that makes absolute sense! I definitely think you need to talk to ABD and tell them that. I think knowing what's going on with the itinerary under these circumstances before PIF is a completely reasonable ask!
Interesting. But as the title of the article is "Japan set to announce the removal of COVID-19 restrictions on Tokyo and 17 other prefectures", I wonder which prefectures are in the "17 other". I looked, and there are 47 prefectures in Japan, so it seems a large part of the country will still have restrictions. But at least it's a start!
Now June 5th... assume people are getting notifications?
In contrast, nearly 19,000 Japanese tourists visited the US (Mainland, Hawaii, & Guam) in January 2022 alone, and the number is certainly higher now. Starting to feel like this is a one-way deal, reminiscent of the Edo/Tokugawa period.
