Japan’s latest subsidy program to help the tourism industry has run into familiar problems.

Customers and service operators have complained about the “cumbersome procedures” required to receive discounts on domestic tour packages.

Some companies said the government’s subsidy program, which started in October, has created too much business for their depleted work forces to handle.

Despite the added revenue stemming from the program, many people in the tourism industry have complained it “has increased the burden on us.”

A major Japanese booking site, called “Jalan net,” reported that as of Nov. 11, subsidized packages under the program were no longer available in 32 prefectures because they reached the budgetary ceiling.

On Oct. 11, the day the subsidized packages went on sale, there was so much traffic on travel-related websites that people had difficulty getting through.

According to a Teikoku Databank Ltd. survey, 45 percent of 800 hotels and ryokan nationwide in October posted year-on-year growth in revenue.

In a survey conducted in April 2021, the ratio was only 5 percent.

Seven percent of the companies in the latest survey reported year-on year losses, compared with 76 percent in the 2021 survey.

Rio Yamano, 29, a service manager at a hotel in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, said the hotel’s occupancy rate has increased not only on weekends but also on weekdays thanks to the subsidy program.

“But I think hotel workers and guests have been confused by the system,” she said.

To receive a discounted rate under the program, a guest is required to provide a full-vaccination certificate or a negative result from a COVID-19 test upon checking in.

However, some guests did not know about the requirement, so hotel staff told them about a nearby PCR testing facility, she said.

“It now takes us twice as long as usual to check in a guest,” she said. “I always want our guests to have fun, but sometimes they are disappointed because of such procedures.”

Companies decide whether to participate in the government’s subsidy program.

Many operators obviously want the program to help them recover from financial damage caused by the pandemic.

But the hotel where Yamano works at has faced a chronic labor shortage.

“We don’t have enough manpower, so we sometimes decide not to accept a reservation even though we have a vacancy,” she said.

Makuri Nakayama, 28, runs You.Japan Inc., a Tokyo-based company that develops apps for tourists and accommodation facilities.

Through social media, the company has spread “five pleas” for users of the subsidy program, including “please understand the labor shortage reality in the tourism industry” and “please check the different systems used in each municipality.”

Nakayama said the company created the pleas to help save the industry.

“Staff have been leaving the tourism industry since the pandemic started,” he said. “If we let it accelerate, the entire tourism industry could collapse.”

Nakayama said the central government should provide a better explanation on how the subsidy program works.

“I don’t think any of the people who created the subsidy system have ever worked in a hotel,” Nakayama said.

A senior official of a company that manages multiple hotels in Osaka said the program offers only a short-term solution.

“The people who come to stay at our hotels on the subsidy program will never come back (without the discounts),” the official said. “In the long-term, I doubt the subsidy program is truly helping to boost travel.”

The subsidy program will continue until late December, but a recent increase in COVID-19 cases has raised fears that the eighth wave of infections is about to hit Japan.

“The biggest effect of the subsidy program was sending people the message that it is safe to travel,” said Kazuo Takahashi, a tourism marketing professor at Kindai University. “But it is doubtful that the subsidy program will really help accommodation facilities get stronger.”

He said accommodation operators should assess their target customers, and the entire industry should think about their management policies, such as giving pay hikes.”

(This article was written by Amane Sugawara and Shinji Hakotani.)