The number of tourists to the easternmost islets of Dokdo has jumped following Japan’s renewed territorial claim to the islets.

Tourism sources said Sunday that the number of tourists signing up for Dokdo tours from the nation’s top three tourist agencies rose sharply from the middle of this month, or double that posted in the same period last year.

The number of reservations and calls requesting information on Dokdo tours has shot up in the wake of the tourist shooting at North Korea’s Mount Geumgang and Japan’s latest territorial claim to Dokdo in a new manual for middle school textbooks.

Reservations are a must to travel to Dokdo as only 18-hundred tourists are allowed to enter the islets per day.

A tourist agency staff said patriotism is apparently playing a large part in the rising interest in Dokdo tours.