Japan reopens to tourists with shuttered souvenir shops, hotel staff shortage
10/10/2022 02:00
By Kantaro Komiya and Kentaro Sugiyama
TOKYO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - As Japan throws open its doors
to visitors this week after more than two years of pandemic
isolation, hopes for a tourism boom face tough headwinds amid
shuttered shops and a shortage of hospitality workers.
From Tuesday, Japan will reinstate visa-free travel to
dozens of countries, ending some of world's strictest border
controls to slow the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Fumio
Kishida is counting on tourism to help invigorate the economy
and reap some benefits from the yen's slide to a 24-year low.
Arata Sawa is among those eager for the return of foreign
tourists, who previously comprised up to 90% of the guests at
his traditional inn.
"I'm hoping and anticipating that a lot of foreigners will
come to Japan, just like before COVID," said Sawa, the
third-generation owner of the Sawanoya ryokan in Tokyo.
Just over half a million visitors have come to Japan so far
in 2022, compared with a record 31.8 million in 2019. The
government had a goal of 40 million in 2020 timed with the
Summer Olympics until both were upended by the coronavirus.
Kishida said last week the government is aiming to attract 5
trillion yen ($34.5 billion) in annual tourist spending. But
that goal may be too ambitious for a sector that has atrophied
during the pandemic. Hotel employment slumped 22% between 2019
and 2021, according to government data.
Spending from overseas visitors will reach only 2.1 trillion
yen by 2023 and won't exceed pre-COVID levels until 2025, wrote
Nomura Research Institute economist Takahide Kiuchi in a report.
Flag carrier Japan Airlines Co 9201.T has seen inbound
bookings triple since the border easing announcement, president
Yuji Akasaka said last week, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
Even so, international travel demand won't fully recover until
around 2025, he added.
GHOST TOWN
Narita Airport, Japan's biggest international airport some
70 kilometres from Tokyo, remains eerily quiet, with about half
of its 260 shops and restaurants shuttered.
"It's like half a ghost town," said 70-year old Maria
Satherley from New Zealand, gesturing at the Terminal 1
departure area.
Satherley, whose son lives in the northern island of
Hokkaido, said she would like to return with her granddaughter
this winter but probably won't because the child is too young to
be vaccinated, a prerequisite for tourists entering Japan.
"We're just going to wait till next year," she said.
Amina Collection Co has shut its three souvenir shops at
Narita and is unlikely to reopen them until next spring, said
president Sawato Shindo.
The company reallocated staff and supplies from the airport
to other locations in its 120-shop chain around Japan as it
refocused on domestic tourism during the pandemic.
"I don't think there's going to be a sudden return to the
pre-pandemic situation," Shindo said. "Restrictions are still
pretty strict compared to other countries."
Japan still strongly encourages that people wear masks
indoors and refrain from loud talking. The Cabinet on Friday
approved changing hotel regulations so that they can refuse
guests who do not obey infection controls during an outbreak.
Many service workers found better working conditions and
wages in other fields over the past two years, so luring them
back may be difficult, said a consultant for tourism companies
who asked not to be identified.
"The hospitality industry is very infamous for low wages, so
if the government values tourism as a key industry, financial
support or subsidies are probably needed," he added.
The Japanese government is starting a domestic travel
initiative this month that offers transportation and
accommodation discounts, similar to its Go To Travel campaign in
2020 that was cut short following a surge in COVID infections.
TIGHT LABOUR MARKET
Almost 73% of hotels nationwide said they were short of
regular workers in August, up from about 27% a year earlier,
according to market research firm Teikoku Databank.
In Kawaguchiko, a lake town at the foot of Mt. Fuji, inns
had difficulty staffing before the pandemic amid Japan's tight
labour market and they anticipate a similar bottleneck now, said
a trade group staffer who asked not to be identified.
That sentiment was echoed by Akihisa Inaba, general manager
at the hot-spring resort Yokikan in Shizuoka, central Japan, who
said short staffing during the summer meant workers had to
forego time off.
"Naturally, the labour shortage will become more pronounced
when inbound travel returns," said Inaba. "So, I'm not so sure
we can be overjoyed."
Whether overseas visitors wear face masks and abide by other
common infection controls in Japan is another concern. The
strict border controls were broadly popular during most of the
pandemic, and fears remain about the appearance of new viral
variants.
"From the start of the pandemic until now, we've had just a
few foreign guests," said Tokyo innkeeper Sawa. "Pretty much all
of them wore masks, but I'm really not sure whether the people
who visit from here on will do the same."
"My plan is to kindly ask them to wear a mask while inside
the building," he added.
($1 = 145.0100 yen)
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(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Kentaro Sugiyama, Ritsuko
Shimizu, and Tom Bateman; Writing by Rocky Swift; Editing by Ana
Nicolaci da Costa)
((rocky.swift@thomsonreuters.com;))