After nearly three years of sealed borders, Japan is now welcoming vaccinated tourists from 68 countries without visas.
While some may be cheering, others continue to struggle.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday, the first day of reopening, that first-time and repeat visitors flowed through Haneda Airport in Tokyo, many of whom are capitalizing on the yen's 24-year low against the U.S. dollar.
These are glad tidings for the shops, restaurants, hotels and other local businesses shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic and desperately hoping for customers.
One eager traveler told Bloomberg he booked a 5-star hotel in Japan without any hesitation and is ready to splurge at retailers because his Taiwan dollars are going much further.
“I only brought one suitcase with me, but will probably end up with two going back,” he told the news outlet.
However, Narita Airport, Japan's largest international airport, was quiet on opening day. And half of its 260 retailers and restaurants remained closed. One traveler called it a ghost town, Reuters reports.
The news outlet reports that service workers, including those in the hospitality industry, found jobs elsewhere with better pay, and drawing them back will be difficult. Data from market research firm Teikoku stated that nearly 73% of hotels across Japan said they were short-staffed in August, an increase of 27% year over year.
This sounds similar to the United States' current labor market. I'll admit, it's easy to get stuck in the bubble of where you live and fail to remember that other countries are going through the same thing.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association reported earlier this month that 87% of survey respondents said they are facing a staffing shortage, with 36% saying the shortage is severe. Staff that these hoteliers are most in need of include housekeepers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said as of August, hotel employment was down by roughly 400,000 jobs compared to February 2020.
No one is immune to these challenges. And I fear for the parts of Japan that are seeing, or will soon see, an influx of international inbound travelers.
The U.S. at least has had some time to cope with the shortage amid periods of demand surges over the past few years. Japan's demand could go, figuratively speaking, from 0-100 real quick following the easing of restrictions, resulting in overwhelmed workers.
Akihisa Inaba, general manager at the hot-spring resort Yokikan in Shizuok, central Japan, told Reuters the lack of workers meant the ones who were there day to day had to skip taking time off.
"Naturally, the labor shortage will become more pronounced when inbound travel returns," Inaba told the news outlet. "So, I'm not so sure we can be overjoyed."
We've reported many times here at Hotel News Now about employee burnout across the industry. It's very real, it's crucial to acknowledge, and there must be solutions put in place.
Some common themes I hear from hotel company CEOs and other leaders around this topic include finding ways to give more vacation time and higher wages, leveraging technology, investing in employee development, access to professional coaching and counseling and simply communicating from the top down.
Sloan Dean, CEO of Dallas-based third-party hotel management platform Remington Hotels, told me recently in a video interview that these labor challenges will be a multi-year problem. And as tough as it is to hear, it means the industry needs to learn how to operate hotels with less labor.
"Anyone who's not taking [the labor challenge] from the vantage point that I'm going to operate this full-service hotel with about 10%-20% less staff is losing out," Dean said. "The total wrong question is, 'When do I get back to 2019 staffing levels?' At Remington Hotels, it will be never. The only way we get back to 2019 staffing levels is if occupancy levels are 15% higher than in 2019."
My hope is that operators of hotels in Japan can give some extra tender loving care to their front-line staff as lobbies and guest rooms fill up over the next few months. I've heard many times that caring first for the staff leads to better care for guests.
If employees' cups aren't full, guest-facing service will decline.
Hoteliers, if you know operators in Japan, please reach out to them this week. Offer them advice on what has worked and what has not. Let them know that we are all in this together.
Send me a note via email, Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.