The annual Snow Festival began in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo on Tuesday, hit by fears over the coronavirus outbreak and soaring costs involved in transporting snow to the site amid a warm winter.The number of visitors to the winter event in the Hokkaido capital through Feb. 11 looks likely to dip below last year's record 2.74 million after China's ban on group travel due to the virus outbreak led to a mass cancellation of hotel bookings.Unusually low snowfall since the end of last year has added to the headaches, with organizers having to go further than previous years to procure…READ FULL ARTICLE
