"I was planning to take my parents on a trip to Kitakyushu, more than 100 km north of Kumamoto City by car, and I'm debating whether to cancel." "I agonized until the last minute because of the Kumamoto summer festival and ended up canceling my plane ticket because it was expensive, and just imagining it makes me shudder."
After a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu on the 28th, consumers who were about to travel to Japan or had plans to do so are unsettled. On social media and blogs, travelers who had booked flights and accommodations ahead of the summer peak season continued to debate whether to "postpone the schedule" or "avoid only Kyushu." However, the travel industry said inquiries have not led to actual cancellations and noted it needs to watch for a few more days.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the quake occurred at around 4:27 p.m. on the 28th near Uki City in Kumamoto Prefecture. The focal depth was about 10 km, and the magnitude was 7.1.
According to the travel industry on the 29th, customer inquiries related to the quake have increased slightly, but they have not developed into cancellations. A Nol Universe official said, "By this morning, we had received some customer inquiries related to the earthquake, but most were to check whether there were any issues with scheduled flight operations," and added, "No unusual trends have been identified." The volume of inquiries was reported to be slightly higher than usual. The official added, "So far, airlines have not issued special guidance such as waiving change or refund fees, and there are no operational anomalies such as mass cancellations."
Hanatour said, "So far, we have identified no cases of travelers being harmed or having their itineraries affected."
The local situation also appears to be stabilizing quickly. Kumamoto Airport, which was temporarily closed the previous day, is now operating normally, and flights were confirmed to have departed on schedule.
The industry cites the relatively small share that Kumamoto accounts for in Korean travel demand. It is uncommon for travelers entering via Fukuoka to go all the way to the small city of Kumamoto without passing through places like Yufuin, and even among Kyushu travelers, teams that plan an itinerary solely around Kumamoto are extremely rare.
An industry official said, "Among Kyushu products, it is rare to include a Kumamoto itinerary, and for the time being there are no products that include it," adding, "Even in such cases, we will flexibly adjust schedules according to local conditions." The industry said recent demand for travel to Japan has been concentrating on Hokkaido, Tokyo and Osaka, and most Kyushu products are centered on Fukuoka.
However, given that demand for travel to Japan is at a record high, whether sentiment cools is a variable. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 5,675,100 Koreans visited Japan in the first half of this year, up 18.6% from a year earlier, ranking No. 1 by country and region. Koreans' share among all inbound foreign visitors to Japan also rose 4.7 percentage points from 22.2% to 26.9%, meaning more than one in four visitors was Korean. The weak yen, including the won-yen exchange rate breaking below 900 won, along with a 18.1% increase in Korea-Japan flight operations to 84,448 in the first half that expanded seat supply, are cited as reasons for the tilt toward Japan.
The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of the possibility of additional quakes up to seismic intensity 7 over the next week, especially within two to three days. It explained that because the focal depth of this quake was 10 km, shallower than in 2016 (12 km), seismic activity is more likely to intensify.
A major travel agency official said, "Customers do not cancel their schedules immediately upon seeing the news; they tend to decide while watching the situation in real time," and predicted, "It will take a few days for actual cancellations, if any, to be recorded."