xysoom Matrosen-Obergefreiter

Joined: 26 May 2020 Location: China
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Posted: 25 July 2020 at 11:17 | IP Logged
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Delayed Olympics Leaves Hotels Deserted and the Economy
in Limbo
The Olympic cauldron will remain unlit and its stadium
empty on Friday as the virus-triggered postponement of
the Tokyo Games leaves disappointed fans wondering if its
still worth holding on to tickets and hotel operators
fretting over thousands of vacant rooms.To get more news
about
WikiFX, you can visit wikifx news official website.
Japan will still mark the day originally scheduled
for the opening ceremony with a national holiday. But
there will be little to celebrate amid continued
uncertainty over the feasibility of a revamped staging of
the Games next year.
Dylan Crain, a resident of Tampa, Florida who had
tickets to attend Friday‘s opening event, said he’d be
less willing to go to a Games currently rescheduled to
start on July 23, 2021.
“We‘d meticulously made a timeline, set up
everything and were happy with our accommodations,” said
Crain, who helped plan the trip for a group of 12. “Now,
rescheduling all of that, in a compressed timeline with
so many people, it’s hard to justify that. Not sure
everyone would even feel safe.”
The government had expected the Games to fuel a surge
in overseas visitors to 40 million this year; now, it may
not even reach 5 million. Spending by overseas visitors
will be a fraction of the 4.8 trillion yen ($44.7
billion) in 2019, with the failed Olympic bet threatening
to re-entrench Japanese firms conservative stance on
investment.
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“This was supposed to be the busiest time for us ever,”
said Naoyuki Fukuuchi, managing director at Japan Hotel
Association. “Instead, we are in a dire situation like
never before.”
In a central bank survey earlier this month,
sentiment among large hotel and restaurant owners
nosedived to a record low of -91, the worst among any
business category. Zero marks the dividing line between
optimism and pessimism.A number of big hotel chains
including Prince Hotels & Resorts have delayed opening
new facilities. A third of the 620,000 workers in the
hotel industry were still on leave as of May, according
to the ministry of internal affairs. But even with staff
furloughed, some hotels havent had the reserves to
weather the storm.
The White Bear Family Co. and its group companies,
which ran hotels and sold travel packages, filed for
bankruptcy protection with 35 billion yen in debt, a
record case for Japans tourism industry, according to
research firm Teikoku Databank.Victor Warren, who played
hockey for Canada at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, had
planned to attend the Games this year with a fellow
Olympian from 56 years ago, John McBryde, who won a
bronze medal with the Australian hockey team.
Warren, 82, is determined to attend next year, come
what may. “The Games are a life-altering experience, and
something one will never forget,” he said.But others
have scrapped travel plans altogether. Emma Chirnside, a
29-year-old market researcher in Sydney, and her
boyfriend had planned to come with another couple to root
for a friend on Australia‘s womens’ water polo team.
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