No International Travelers At Tokyo Olympics Means Money Problems

The Games must go on!

Attention Americans who were planning to go to Japan this summer to catch some action at the Tokyo Olympics. Japan has canceled your trip to the country. A statement released after a meeting with everyone connected to the Tokyo Olympics, including government officials was clear. “During the meeting, the IOC and the IPC were informed about the conclusion of the Japanese parties not to allow entry into Japan for overseas spectators for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 due to the prevailing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.” There is still a question as to the feasibility of holding the Tokyo event, for the time being the games must go on. COVID-19 has not gone away but Japan apparently will allow athletes and staff to enter Japan. Japan officials acknowledge that the virus has not magically disappeared. “Currently, the COVID-19 situation in Japan and many other countries around the world is still very challenging and a number of variant strains have emerged, while international travel remains severely restricted globally.”

There are some problems that need to be settled from the barring of travelers into Japan for the Olympics. There are people who have given deposits to land a hotel room for the Games and those people might not get their money back from those hospitality establishments. There may be a problem getting refunds on flights for people who bought a seat to go to the Tokyo event. The International Olympic Committee plans to refund money to people outside Japan who bought tickets to the various competitions. That brings up another problem. Japan’s government might be on the hook for the loss of ticket revenue and that could mean a payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to the IOC. But the games must go on.

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