Two reasonably large hotels in the beachside hot spring resort area of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture closed their doors last month.
Atami Korakuen Hotel Misaki-kan Annex
Atami Korakuen Hotel closed their Misaki-kan annex building last month, ending 65 years of operations. The hotel will continue to operate in their newer building next-door, while the former annex building will be demolished and replaced with new facilities in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 11-storey, 142-room hotel opened in 1965. The building, which was built to the old earthquake codes, was subject to a recent law change requiring hotels built before 1981 and with a floor area of 5,000 sqm to conduct earthquake-resistant inspections and carry out retrofitting if deemed necessary.
Demolition will start this month.
Hotel Mizuhatei
Hotel Mizuhatei is located alongside the No. 135 National Highway and overlooking Sagami Bay. The 11-storey hotel, which opened in 1951, also closed last month.
Reasons for the closure were not given. There were reports in March that the hotel was to be sold to a hotel developer but negotiations stalled.
Tourism boom
In 2015, the number of tourists staying in hotels in Atami exceeded 3 million for the first time in 14 years. There are concerns, however, that the closure of these hotels could limit the recent growth in the local tourism market. The closure of these two hotels will result in a loss of 220 rooms which would have provided accommodation to as many as 200,000 tourists a year. The city has approximately 300 hotels.
Sources:
The Shizuoka Shimbun, September 1, 2016.
The Chunichi Shimbun, August 29, 2016.
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