TOKYO: Travel agencies started accepting reservations Friday for subsidized trips to three central Japan prefectures under a government tourism campaign to support areas affected by the Jan. 1 powerful earthquake in the Noto Peninsula.

Tour products covering trips to Niigata, Toyama and Fukui prefectures have been sold out on a host of websites soon after the start, displaying robust demand for the campaign.

Nippon Travel Agency Co. started accepting reservations for trips to Toyama and Niigata online at 11 a.m. They became unavailable within 20 minutes.

Kinki Nippon Tourist Co.’s tour products to Toyama and Niigata were sold out online around 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., respectively, after the reservations opened at 10 a.m.

JTB Corp. started sales of trips to Fukui at an outlet in the prefecture. A company official said that many reservations had been made.

Sanyanagitei, a “ryokan” Japanese-style inn featuring a hot spring in Kurobe, Toyama, received a rush of phone calls after the reservation opening at 10:30 a.m. All reservation slots had been filled by around noon. “We’re grateful for many people supporting us,” an employee said.

As part of the campaign, JTB will launch online sales of trips to Niigata and Toyama on Tuesday, when ANA X Inc., a unit of ANA Holdings Inc., is scheduled to launch tour plans under the campaign.

Reservations will open on Tuesday for trips to Ishikawa Prefecture, hit hardest by the quake.

JIJI Press