Travel agency JTB Corp. said Tuesday it will boost its selection of low-price overseas package tours in early spring, with a particular emphasis on families, elderly tourists and women in their 20s and 30s.

The move is aimed at arresting the tourism slump triggered by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

The nation's largest travel agency has raised its sales target for low-price packages in the JTB Early Spring Special category by 25 percent to 41,520.

JTB said it aims to achieve this target by increasing the number of seasonal special packages available from 1,000 to 1,500. About 1,400 of these packages are new, it added.

JTB is already offering child discounts with regard to seasonal tours in the Oceania and South Pacific regions.

These discounts helped to drive up JTB's sales on Nov. 16 -- the first day it started accepting reservations -- by 10 percent for the Oceania region and by 60 percent for the South Pacific region compared with last year, according to the firm.

JTB has experienced a drastic decline in demand for regular overseas tour packages in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

As of Nov. 23, its number of reservations for regular overseas packages in January stood at just 47 percent of the previous year's figure. Its number of reservations for tours in February stood at just 48 percent of last year's total, while its reservations for March stood at just 39 percent of last year's figure, the firm said.