Japan’s Tourism: Rail road companies prepare to grow looking beyond the pandemic

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A popular cherry blossom viewing sites around Japan were packed on this Saturday, the first weekend since a state of emergency was lifted for all areas in Japan including Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures. 

Cherry blossom viewing sites in Japan

There were more viewers compared with last week as the cherry blossoms reached full bloom this weekend. Local government officials called on blossom viewers to wear masks and avoid crowds. The cherry blossoms have bloomed as usual, but the resurgence of the tourism industry seems to be a little bit way off. 

Cherry blossom viewing sites in Japan

Tokyu Hotels, a leading hotel chain in Japan, announced that it will close its Nagoya Sakae Tokyu REI Hotel located in the center of Nagoya City at the end of March 2022. Since the number of domestic and foreign tourists has decreased sharply due to the new coronavirus and is not expected to recover soon, Tokyu decided to close this hotel, which was opened in 1984 and is rather aged. The hotel maintained occupancy rate of around 75% before the pandemic, but the recent occupancy rate is around 30%. 

On the other hand, some companies are steadily advancing business plans in anticipation of the end of the pandemic even in such a dire business environment. JR Central announced that it will invest 430 billion yen in the Linear Chuo Shinkansen project in the fiscal year ending March 2022. 

Although its sales and profit have been hit by the spread of the new coronavirus infection with the consolidated profit for the fiscal year ending March 2021 expected to be a deficit of hefty 234 billion yen as passengers of Tokaido Shinkansen plummeted due to the new coronavirus infection, JR Central is steadily proceeding with the development of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen aiming to secure medium to long term growth. 

JR Central is steadily proceeding with the development of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen

Nagoya Railroad will also increase consolidated capital investment in FY2021 to 65.7 billion yen, 4% increase compared to FY2020. Nagoya Railroad plans to allocate 14.8 billion yen to real estate development, centering on office buildings and commercial facilities in Nagoya City and tourist hotels in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture which is scheduled to open in 2021. It will also invest 14.1 billion yen in construction to elevate facilities near the Nagoya station and barrier-free construction inside the station. 

Japanese people aspire to see the tourism industry regains its vitality by the time when the cherry blossoms bloom next year again.

Cherry blossom viewing sites in Japan

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