Ice broken up on Hokkaido's Lake Akan to start tourist season

Asian Economic News, April 21, 2003

KUSHIRO, Japan, April 16 Kyodo

A 188-ton excursion ship started breaking up the ice on Lake Akan in Hokkaido on Wednesday to prepare for the opening of the spring sightseeing season.

The Akan Kanko Kisen shipping company plans to start operating its excursion ships on the lake next Monday.

Lake Akan, which has a shoreline of about 26 kilometers, is completely covered with ice 50-80 centimeters thick because below-freezing temperatures continued even after March.

The excursion ship Mashu Maru was used to break up the ice, company officials said.

''The Lake Akan hot-spring resort is facing many cancellations by foreign tourists due to concerns over the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),'' said Kiyoshi Yamamura, 52, chief sales official of Akan Kanko Kisen. ''We want to attract tourists by running the excursion ships.''

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

 

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