Southwestern Japan hotels see 174,000 cancellations after Kumamoto quake

In the aftermath of a magnitude-7.1 earthquake in southwestern Japan on July 28, nearly 174,000 hotel and ryokan bookings were canceled across six prefectures, excluding Kumamoto. Kyodo News tallied the cancellations, which were primarily due to transportation disruptions and concerns stemming from the disaster. However, some officials suspect reputational damage as tourists avoided the region despite limited damage in Kumamoto.

The cancellations also extended to parts of Kumamoto Prefecture beyond the disaster zone, particularly the popular Aso region. The government plans to introduce a subsidy program to cover accommodation and tour costs in all seven Kyushu prefectures by the end of the month, according to sources. The canceled bookings amounted to around 670 million yen ($4.2 million), excluding Miyazaki and Kagoshima, which did not provide figures.

Kumamoto recorded 146,470 cancellations, amounting to 2.06 billion yen, while Kagoshima had the highest number of cancellations at 111,749, partly due to disruptions on the Kyushu Expressway and Kyushu Shinkansen. Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Oita, and Saga followed with 28,000, 14,259, 11,357, 7,810, and 1,820 cancellations respectively.

Local officials in Oita and Nagasaki noted some cancellations were due to vague concerns about traveling to Kyushu, even when destinations were unaffected by the quake.