The number of bankruptcies of inns and hotels rose 8.4 percent in fiscal 1999 from the previous year to 90, the worst figure since the burst of the late 1980s bubble economy, a private credit research institution said Tuesday.
The tally of bankruptcies was up from the previous 12 months for the fifth consecutive year, reflecting the slump in individual consumption and the trend for overseas travel, Teikoku Databank said.
The data covered companies with liabilities of 10 million yen or more.
The outlook for inns and hotels in fiscal 2000 remains severe, with Dai-Ichi Hotel Ltd. filing for court protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law in May.
Fiscal 1999 was tough on prestigious traditional Japanese inns as 34 percent of the failures hit inns that had been in business for more than 30 years.
Many bankruptcies occurred due to the failure of the firms to revise expansionary investment plans drawn up during the bubble era.
Bankruptcies in Tokyo were the most numerous, with 10, followed by Shizuoka Prefecture with nine, Mie Prefecture with five and Nagano Prefecture with three.
Despite the rise in bankruptcies, the amount of liabilities in fiscal 1999 was down about 35 percent from the previous year to 94.8 billion yen, reflecting the smaller size of the entities.