JAKARTA - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This delay was the most devastating blow to Japan's long-prepared hotel and tourism industry.
After a long tug of war, the IOC and the Japanese government finally relented. Yet they have insisted on weeks of insisting that the Olympics go ahead by announcing a month-long consultation on scenarios including postponements.
Japanese hotel and tourism chains are definitely looking forward to the 2020 Olympics as new hopes. Since the beginning of the year, they have been battered by Covid-19 and hope that Tokyo 2020 will be the moment to help reverse this year's losses.
"Many rooms will be canceled, and it will be difficult to fill empty rooms with new customers given the situation," said Tokyo Hotel and Ryokan Association Secretary General Shigemi Sudo as quoted by Channel News Asia, Sunday, March 29.
Japan's hospitality industry deserves a lot of hope in Tokyo 2020. According to a Japan Tourism Board survey, the Japanese hotel industry has been devastated by the spread of the coronavirus with bookings dropping as much as 90 percent in the March-April period.
The Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo's busy Shinjuku district said it started receiving cancellation calls shortly after the delay was announced. Her suffering was exacerbated by the fact that a part-time worker at the hotel caught the virus, forcing a deep cleaning of a large building in one of Tokyo's busiest districts.
"We hope to play a role (in hosting guests for the postponed Olympics), but there is nothing we can say now," said a hotel spokesman.
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