The number of Chinese travelers to Japan departing from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in March fell 11 percent year-on-year due to the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, the airport's border inspection authority said Monday.

Travel agencies in Shanghai also reported that the typical peak season for travel to Japan was suffering a slump.

"On average, we have had eight or nine tour groups go to Japan each month recently," said Gao Jiajing, the manager of a local travel agency's outbound tours department. "By comparison, we sent nearly 50 tour groups to Japan at this time last year."

Many tourists cancelled their trips to Japan after the dispute over the islands, which both China and Japan claim, broke out last September.

"There is no sign of improvement as bilateral relation remain strained," Gao told the Global Times.

In addition, some Chinese travelers have been reluctant to go to Japan due to concerns about radiation leftover from the earthquake that damaged a nuclear power plant there two years ago, according to a press release from the Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection Station at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.

The border authority said travelers have instead been going to other tourist destinations, such as Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand.

The press release quoted one husband who said he and his wife changed their honeymoon plans to go to Thailand rather than Japan due to health concerns about radiation.