A tour boat tragedy off the spectacular Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido has cast a deep shadow over the local boat sightseeing industry as holidaymakers and travel agencies rush to cancel bookings ahead of the Golden Week holiday period starting April 29.

Operators were gearing up for a comeback after two years of sparse business due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But that will not happen now.

A local association consisting of four pleasure boat operators in Shiretoko decided April 24 to voluntarily suspend the operations during the holiday period that runs until early May. The companies include Shiretoko Pleasure Boat, which is based in Shari, Hokkaido, and operated the missing boat.

In the meantime, the Japan Passengerboat Association, acting at the behest of the transport ministry, advised its members comprising about 550 companies nationwide to take full safety precautions ahead of the Golden Week holidays.

The decision prompted leading travel operator HIS Co. to cancel holiday tours that offer optional pleasure boat rides in Shiretoko, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The company said it had checked the credentials of its contracted pleasure boat operators to make sure they had not caused an accident in the past three years.

JTB Corp., another major travel company, said the local association’s decision not to provide boat tours during the holiday season had a spill-on effect with its own business, forcing the company to suspend some of the optional tours it normally offers in Shiretoko.

The company said it will contact its contracted sightseeing boat operators nationwide to check that they have adequately implemented safety measures.

Club Tourism International, another big travel company, said most of its package trips to Shiretoko involve a pleasure boat tour.

The company set its own safety regulations, independently from boat operators.

The company has received cancellations of Shiretoko tours since the tour boat accident, a representative said.

Passenger transport business operators, which includes sightseeing boat operators, are required to establish a safety management code with regard to inspection and maintenance, which they are obliged to report to the transport ministry.

The Hokkaido accident alarmed sightseeing boat operators around the country.

Shimanami, which operates a sightseeing boat that takes passengers to view famous whirlpools in the Kurushima Kaikyo channel off the coast of Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku, held an emergency meeting to discuss and reaffirm safety measures on April 25.

The company deals with 40,000 to 50,000 tourists annually. Boat captains and crew members conducted offshore evacuation drills following the emergency meeting. The drills assumed the boats were flooded.

Hideto Murakami, the company president, said the Hokkaido accident “is not without implications for the company,” adding that the drill was held “to brace up the staff.”

Joyport Minamiawaji Inc., a company that operates a cruise ship around Awajishima island in Hyogo Prefecture, has started reviewing its response strategy in the event of an accident by checking equipment such as flotation devices.

The company currently has five crew members on board the vessel, but said it will consider assigning additional staff to strengthen surveillance inside the ship.

Senkakuwan Ageshima Kanko, a company that operates boat tours in the scenic bluff area of Sado, Niigata Prefecture, did not have high hopes for the Golden Week holidays, though.

In pre-pandemic times, the company dealt with around 50,000 passengers annually. But the figure dropped to 18,000 during the pandemic.

As a safety measure, the company will cancel a tour if the height of waves reaches 1.5 meters.

Company president Yuichi Kikuchi pledged to make an extra effort to ensure thorough safety checks are undertaken and strict safety rules followed.

Still, Kikuchi fears the Hokkaido accident will affect his business.

Shinanogawa Water Shuttle, a company that operates a water bus service on the Shinanogawa river in Niigata Prefecture, also reported a drop in passengers during the pandemic.

In pre-pandemic days, around 30,000 to 40,000 passengers used the service annually. But sales dropped to a third of a normal year in 2021.

Michihei Kurihara, the company president, said the rescue operation still under way in Hokkaido was painful to watch.

“As soon as we see the full spectrum of the accident, we will share information on our website and social media accounts to dispel any uneasiness among future passengers,” Kurihara said.

(This article was compiled from reports by Go Takahashi, Tomohiko Kaneko, Shinji Hakotani, Yoko Masuda and Naomi Nishimura.)