(Yicai) Nov. 25 -- Chinese airlines have canceled all flights on 12 routes to Japan as hundreds of thousands of Chinese mainlanders take up the offer of free ticket refunds amid heightened political tensions between the two countries.

The 12 routes already had few scheduled flights, but with the slump in passenger numbers, carriers have now canceled all of them, according to the latest monitoring data by Flight Steward.

Xiamen Airlines has pulled all flights from Hangzhou to Chubu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya, while Hainan Airlines has suspended services from Xi'an to New Chitose Airport in Chitose on Hokkaido island. In addition, Air China has reduced weekly flights on its Shanghai-Osaka route to 16 from 21, while China Eastern Airlines cut six of 14 flights on its Beijing-Osaka route.

The cancellation rate is especially high for flights to Kansai International Airport, which serves Osaka, as most Chinese headed there are tourists, an industry insider told Yicai, while those who travel to Tokyo do so mainly for business, making them less likely to change their plans.

Flight cancellations from Tianjin Binhai International Airport reached 65 percent, while those from Nanjing Lukou International Airport topped 59 percent, TravelSky data show.

Bookings to Japan on Chinese mainland airlines plunged by 543,000 on Nov. 18 compared with Nov. 15. So within three days of carriers offering free refunds and rebookings, more than half a million tickets were canceled, aviation expert Li Hanming previously told Yicai.

More than a dozen Chinese airlines, including the three biggest state-owned carriers -- China Eastern, China Southern Airlines, and Air China -- are offering refund and rescheduling options free of charge to passengers booked on flights to Japan between Nov. 15 and Dec. 31 after China advised its citizens to avoid traveling there amid strained relations between the two nations.

Japanese hotel operators are also facing increasing pressure due to the drop in Chinese visitors, a Chinese-speaking tour guide in the Shikoku region told Yicai. "Both of the Chinese tour groups I was due to receive next month canceled, and so what should be the peak tourist season is now uncertain," she said.

“We’ve seen a slump in demand for local reception services from Chinese mainland tour groups," the guide noted. "Since many of the passengers who canceled their flights to Japan at short notice are independent travelers, I believe the number of hotel booking cancellations is even higher.

"I daren’t imagine what will happen if this situation lasts for a year, as it feels like we are going back to the sluggish days of the pandemic," she noted.

South Korea has become the new top offshore destination for Chinese mainland tourists, according to data from travel platform Qunar. Seoul ranks first for outbound flight searches, while other popular destinations include Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Sydney, and Bali.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev