Businesses refusing service due to COVID

Can businesses (hotels, restaurants, shops, etc) refuse service to customers from outside of their prefecture? And if so, why are they having campaigns and deals to attract customers from different parts of Japan?

I live in a city in X prefecture, which is right on the border of Y prefecture. I often go between the two prefectures with no problem as it's only a ten minute bike ride for me. Earlier this week I went to a restaurant in Y prefecture because they were having a nice deal, but I was refused service because I'm from X prefecture. I wasn't bothered because of how close I live.

Is this common though? Because I imagine if this were to happen to someone who was traveling a much longer distance, their reaction wouldn't be the same as mine. I started thinking more about it after I got an ad in the mail for a tour in Kyushu while I live in Chubu.

It used to be quite common during the first state of emergency when travel between prefectures was much more strongly discouraged than now. Among the prominent businesses refusing service to people from certain prefectures at that time were the Universal Studios Japan in Osaka and Fuji Q Highland. So, I am pretty sure that they can do so during times when governments discourage travel between certain prefectural borders.

And if so, why are they having campaigns and deals to attract customers from different parts of Japan?

Because the "they" are unlikely the same businesses that refuse customers from other prefectures, but different businesses. And because I don't think that inter-prefectural travel is among the things discouraged on a national level this time around. Some local governments may do so, though.

A (Japanese) friend did just tell me today that she was refused reservation at a far away inn, recently. I'm not sure if it was because she was from another prefecture or because she was from a certain prefecture that the inn or its municipal wanted to avoid. I suppose refusal would happen more often in prefectures with fewer numbers of Covid-19-positive people. And maybe it has to do with the fact that a large part of the country is under the 緊急事態宣言 declaration of a state of emergency again. (Tokyo declared on Jan 7 and Aichi declared on Jan 15.)

Either way, I believe that it's the norm for people to make reservations or inquiries in advance if they definitely want to get that specific service, and that includes restaurants, hair salons, orthopedics and anything else. Otherwise, they would just be happy enough going to a different restaurant near the one they headed to. My understanding is that that's the unwritten rule under the pandemic.

As for myself, last summer we used the Go-To Travel campaign to stay at a hotel where its nice restaurant was unfortunately closed due to the pandemic. But there were ads all over telling us that it would open on our last day. So on that day, we waited anxiously at the lobby until the restaurant's doors actually opened only to learn that it was for reserved customers only. Come to think of it, that's the best idea to keep social distancing, so we were happy to leave. But then we noticed that all other hotels of similar grade were welcoming lots of customers without even taking reservations.

So everyone, including businesses and customers, are as confused as the government. You have to learn to enjoy happenings, I guess.

Yes currently due to the multiple region state of emergencies. Have you read or watched the new bulletins in the past few days?