ATAMI, Shizuoka -- Hotels and ryokan inns in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, have seen a spate of cancellations following a deadly landslide in the city earlier this month.
Even businesses outside the disaster-hit district have been affected by the landslide, which has delivered a further blow to a local tourism industry already reeling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The hot-spring area attracts tourists mainly from the Tokyo metropolitan area.
"It is as if the whole of Atami has been hit by the disaster," said Yoshikazu Shimada, the president of the Atami Onsen Ryokan Tachibana inn. "I get the impression people think it would be inconsiderate to visit Atami now."
His inn started receiving cancellations after the landslide on July 3. More cancellations followed when it was announced Monday that the frequency of the popular Atami Fireworks Festival events had been halved.
In a typical year, about 200,000 people attend the 70-year-old summer events, at which fireworks are launched from the sea on five to eight different days.
The six firework events had been scheduled on six different days this summer, but the municipal government and organizations involved decided to cancel the first three because of the ongoing operation to search for victims of the landslide.
The city's three beaches will not open this summer. Atami Mayor Sakae Saito said, "With 17 people still missing, it would be difficult to say, 'Please come to Atami.'"
Shimada said reservations of his inn for August were only about 20% of the pre-pandemic figure. "Everybody around me is saying they are in a tough situation," he said.
The disaster hit Atami's Izusan area, but foot traffic has been dwindling in the heart of the city, including near JR Atami Station, even though the area is more than a kilometer away from the disaster site.
An employee of a souvenir shop in the Heiwadori shopping street in front of the station said some stores have been shuttered since last year.
"Families are among some of the visitors still coming to Atami, so we've been opening to welcome them," she said.
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