Japan Travel Bureau will cancel some of its World Cup tours -- and swallow an estimated 40 million yen loss -- following the theft of tickets from an office in Paris, a spokesman for the nation's largest travel agency announced Thursday in Tokyo.
Last week, some 15,000 tickets were reportedly stolen from the Paris office of Prime Sports International, JTB's business partner. The tickets were for the semifinals on July 7 and 9, the third-place game on July 11 and the championship game on July 12, said spokesman Toshio Sasaki.
JTB said it would need some 800 tickets for its 300 customers, each of whom was planning to see two or three games. "We would like to apologize to those who were looking forward to the tours, whatever the reason for the cancellation," Sasaki said. "Unlike Japan's games, we don't have any hope of getting tickets for these games."
Earlier this month some travel agents had to cancel package tours for Japan's games after trying to buy nonexistent tickets from an unauthorized agent. JTB, however, was able to obtain tickets from an authorized agent.
The travel agency will provide full refunds plus 20 percent of the tour cost to customers of the canceled tours, which were priced between 600,000 yen and 700,000 yen.