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UPDATE, Mar. 24, 2020: The Tokyo Olympics has been postponed for one year, to July 2021.
The spread of coronavirus is wreaking havoc on a broad range of industries, from airlines to overseas casinos to carmakers to apparel companies that source goods from China—and now it’s casting doubt on the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Dick Pound, member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), raised alarms earlier this week when he told the Associated Press that the IOC will have to decide by May what to do about the Olympics amid coronavirus concerns.
The IOC will decide whether the virus is “under sufficient control” at that time, Pound said, and if it isn’t, “You’re probably looking at a cancellation” because “you just don’t postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics... You can’t just say, ‘We’ll do it in October.’”
On Thursday, officials in Tokyo told Reuters the same thing: that there is no backup plan. “There will not be one bit of change in holding the Games as planned,” Katsura Enyo, the deputy director general of the Tokyo 2020 Preparation Bureau, told Reuters. “We are not even thinking of when or in what contingency we might decide things.”
The comments have sent various travel and hospitality businesses, who sell Olympics packages to customers months in advance, into something of a panic. And it wasn’t just Pound’s comments—some firms are already hearing from customers who want guarantees that they can get a refund if the Olympics are canceled.
“We’re up to about 50 different client inquiries regarding what happens if the Olympics are canceled,” says the co-owner of a U.S.-based sporting events hospitality firm, who spoke to Yahoo Finance not for attribution. “The majority are seeking assurance of a refund plan, even though very few purchased the recommended travel insurance policy at the time of booking.”
That firm has $3 million invested in the Tokyo Olympics, and is most concerned about travel restrictions and hotel rooms.
The firm says it hasn’t had any clients cancel their Olympics bookings yet due to coronavirus, but it has “seen a dramatic spike in concern” and has had cancellations of bookings for Europe-based events like the UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul in May.
Indeed, European soccer has been one of the first leagues to take major precautionary measures: On Thursday, Inter Milan will play Ludogrets in a closed stadium, with no fans, due to coronavirus concerns. “That sort of sets a precedent,” says Jack Slingland, VP of operations at ticketing site Tickpick. “If this does get really bad, might that become more common, or was that a more extreme precaution?”