Tourism is the biggest immediate victim in the dispute between China and Japan

Chinese and Japanese travel companies say they are seeing slowing business as the two countries ratchet up the rhetoric in a territorial dispute over a group of East China Sea islands.

All Nippon Airways, Japan’s biggest airline by passengers, said that 18,800 seat reservations have been canceled on its routes between Japan and China for the period from September to November. Chinese budget carrier Spring Airlines will cancel its 10 charter flights between Shanghai and the Japanese city of Tottori from Saturday to Nov. 25.

China’s largest online travel company, Ctrip.com says it is treating the political standoff like a natural disaster and allowing many travelers to get a full refund, which the company says has already led to cancellations of around half the group bookings reserved for the upcoming weeklong National Day holidays.

Marketwatch: ANA said the canceled group tour reservations make up about 2% of the seats available on its services between the two nations in the period. Of the total canceled seats, 3,800 were for flights from Japan and 15,000 were for flights from China.