Senagajima Umikaji Terrace, a Mediterranean-esque shopping mall located near the west coast of Senaga Island in Okinawa Prefecture, usually sees crowds of tourists and lines of buses and rentals cars. Starting in around mid-February this year, however, the number of tour group from overseas has sharply declined, replaced to an extent with local visitors.
The change in the customer landscape was triggered by fears over the spread of COVID-19, which has kept foreign travelers away and made domestic customers more visible.
“Since the coronavirus outbreak began, the area’s customer base has changed completely,” said an official at the tourism association for Senaga Island, which runs Umikaji Terrace in the city of Tomigusuku.