Tokyo –
Japan starting to get crowded with tourists. Like two sides of a coin, Japan felt both happy and disgusted by it.
Reporting from The Guardian on Tuesday (6/2), the weakening of the Yen was one of the factors attracting tourists on holiday to Japan.
“Everything is cheap, the service is great and the food is the best you can get,” said Tommy Buchheit, a US tourist.
According to the Japan Tourism Agency, the country is now targeting 60 million tourists with spending of Yen 15 trillion throughout 2024.
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with this. Many citizens criticize Japan’s tourism policies. They said Japan was not prepared for the high number of tourists, as there would be pressure on accommodation, public transport and the service industry.
Moreover, Japan is struggling with a labor shortage.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that sustainable tourism depends on welcoming visitors without negatively impacting the quality of life of local communities. The proposal put forward by the government is to increase the number of buses, taxis and public transport fares during peak hours, as well as opening new bus routes.
The government has also determined 11 pilot destinations, namely rural eastern Hokkaido and the sub-islands of Okinawa. The government hopes that tourists will stay away from Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, which have always been the main holiday destinations.
The rejection of mass tourism began to appear in Gion, Kyoto in 2022. At that time the number of tourists coming exceeded the number of city residents, about 30 times.
Peter Maclntosh, a Geisha tour organizer from Canada, said that residents were having difficulty dealing with the disruption caused by the large number of visitors.
“The problem is that people here want two things, to have a quiet life and to make money, but this will get worse as more people come,” he said.
Social media is also one of the factors that makes Japan increasingly popular. Many tourists come to lesser-known areas just for the content.
For this reason, the city government is starting to move to overcome mass tourism. Mount Fuji is one of them. This iconic Japanese mountain has implemented an entrance ticket of Yen 2,000 on top of the 1,000 contribution ticket.
“I can imagine the local people are fed up, so we are trying to mind our own business,” said Karlyn de Bruin, one of the Dutch tourists.
While on holiday there, Karlyn saw that there were many tourists busy with their cellphones for content on social media.
“They dress up and take photos a certain way because it will make them look good,” he explains.
Apart from the calm, the Japanese people’s clean habits were also disturbed. Most tourists don’t care about local customs and are busy taking photos.
“I think this is a generational problem. The few times I came here there was no rubbish, but now there is a lot,” explained Lizzie Jones, a US tourist.
Jones said that tourists who now come don’t want to learn about local customs.
“They don’t care, the places they visit are only visited for Instagram,” he concluded.
Watch the video “Before-After View of the Impact of the Earthquake in Japan via Satellite”
(bnl/wsw)
2024-02-06 12:05:00
#Japan #loves #tourist #money #fed #behavior
