Japan coastal hotels face surge in cancellations after megaquake advisory
- Hotels in central and Western Japan experience surge in booking withdrawals as quake advisory raises travel fears, impacting summer tourism
Hotels and ryokan, Japanese-style inns, in coastal areas in central and Western Japan, have been hit by hundreds of cancellations following the weather agency’s advisory over a potential megaquake issued at the peak of the summer holiday season.
Sansuien, a ryokan in Kochi prefecture, Western Japan, reported that bookings for around 450 guests were cancelled on Friday, just one day after the Japan Meteorological Agency issued an advisory, the first of its kind, on an elevated risk of a powerful earthquake in the Nankai Trough, which runs along the Pacific coast
Most of those who cancelled their reservations cited fears of travelling, according to Kazuhiro Kamata, an official of the inn. “While I understand their feelings, it is a tough situation [for us],” Kamata said.
In the Shizuoka prefecture city of Shimoda, located at the tip of Izu Peninsula, reservations for a total of over 550 people have been cancelled. It is estimated that up to a 33-metre tsunami would hit the area in the event of the Nankai Trough megaquake.
Toshihito Okumura, an official at a local ryokan cooperative association based around the famous Dogo hot spring area in Matsuyama in the Western Japan prefecture of Ehime, said he expects at least 1,000 cancellations in the week through next Thursday.
“The fallout is expected to continue for a while,” Okumura said.
