Quake-Hit Kumamoto’s Tourism Sector Suffers 6-B.-Yen Blow

Kumamoto, Aug. 13 (Jiji Press)–Amid the summer holiday season, the tourism industry in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, is suffering a 6-billion-yen blow from the recent massive earthquake. According to the prefectural government, the July 28 earthquake, which measured the maximum seismic intensity level of 7 on the Japanese scale, caused about 4.04 billion yen in damage to hotel buildings and equipment. Additionally, about 146,000 people canceled hotel bookings by Aug. 6, resulting in losses of about 2.06 billion yen. About 60 pct of the cancellations were made in the Aso and Amakusa areas, despite relatively little damage from the quake there. Warning against ungrounded information, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said, “There are unaffected areas even in the prefecture.” After the quake, a “ryokan” Japanese-style inn in the city of Kamiamakusa faced a flurry of cancellations of bookings until autumn. It had already been struggling with damage from last August’s flooding, as well as soaring costs, while still recovering from the COVID-19 crisis. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel,” said the inn’s landlady, Kayomi Nakashima, 58. “We’ve tried to stay positive, but after seeing disasters continue like this, we’re (at a loss).” Aso Farm Land, a leisure facility in the village of Minamiaso, has seen the number of visitors drop to around half of the average-year level. Bookings for overnight stays at the facility from about 4,800 people were canceled by Monday, resulting in a revenue loss of about 100 million yen. “August is usually a busy period for us, but the number of bookings continues to decrease,” said Masakazu Higashi, a 56-year-old manager of the facility. The Aso Volcano Museum, located in a tourist area in the city of Aso, was also hit by a visitor number slump to a third of usual levels in the week after the quake, with bookings from about 400 people, mainly those on school trips and other group tours, canceled. Two weeks after the quake, visitors are beginning to return to the museum, but many are still worried about aftershocks. The museum continues to inform the public on social media that it is open as usual. “We hope things go back to normal soon,” said Katsunori Toyomura, a 40-year-old curator at the museum. A ryokan in the city of Kumamoto has received many booking cancellations for the rest of this year, including a holiday period in September, and has also experienced a fall in demand for drinking parties. The inn sustained damage from the quake, including to tiles in the women’s bath, but it has been able to operate and has accepted evacuees. According to its landlady, Ai Hirayama, 51, the inn had offered its “onsen” hot spring facility to people working on restoration work after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. “We hope people take a break at our facility when they’re tired,” said Hirayama. “We take great pride in being a ryokan offering hot water, a gift from nature.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]