Overtourism is breaking down the Japanese tourism industry

Text | True Story Laboratory, Author | Shi Yuhan, ed Gong Zheng

The yen has fallen, and this May Day, cheap Japan has become one of the hottest overseas destinations for Chinese tourists. However, in Japan, it is easy to hear rumors that Japanese locals do not seem to welcome overseas tourists, which brings a little uneasiness to travel.

It may be true that Japan welcomes and needs foreign tourists to boost its domestic economy, but the influx of tourists from all over the world has created a problem of "Over Tourism" – "environmental overload" – garbage, noise, and inconvenience for local residents – in the narrow island nation. Japan, which aims to attract 60 million overseas tourists by 2030, is formulating local measures based on the experience of Europe and other countries in preventing overtourism for more than a decade, which may also bring collision and mutual learning to Chinese tourism.

Overtourism, secondary problems pile up

April 29, Fujikawaguchiko Town, Yamanashi, Japan.

Mt. Fuji in the distance and the brightly lit Lawson convenience store nearby. The contrast between the two has become a popular spot in the SNS community, attracting tourists from both local and international audiences.

However, it is such a popular spot, but the government staff of Kawaguchiko Town erected a black curtain 2.5 meters high and 2 meters wide at the intersection before May Day, in order to block tourists from taking pictures across the road.

A 72-year-old resident said, "I was proud that it was the best place to see Mt. Fuji, so I regretted that the curtain was installed, but I thought it was a difficult decision because of the possibility of a traffic accident at any time." ”

Behind the unfortunate decision is the "Over Tourism" that has become a prominent problem in the local area in recent years, and in Japan, it is also represented by Kanji as "tourism pollution". It does not point the problem at tourists, but rather on how excessive tourism is reconciled with local life.

A local government official said, "The number of tourists at convenience stores has skyrocketed, causing garbage to be everywhere and obstructing traffic in the surrounding area. ”

The use of a curtain to cover the view is not the first of its kind in Japan.

In May 2023, Hallstatt, Austria's "most beautiful town in the world", became popular because of the movie "Frozen", and about 10,000 tourists visit this town with a population of only 800 every day, but because there are too many tourists, the local environment cannot bear it, so a wooden fence is set up at the scenic spot to block the view of photographers.

Kawaguchiko Town is still a place with few tourists.

In Kyoto, which attracts 50 million tourists a year, the problem of overtourism is thought to have seriously affected the lives of local residents.

In September 2023, a fire broke out at a restaurant in the Gojozaka area, which leads to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, but the bus parking lot was next to the fire scene, and dozens of fire trucks and ambulances could not move forward because of the large number of tourist buses entering and leaving the parking lot.

In Kyoto, which is famous for its geisha culture, there have been many cases of tourists entering private streets without permission and even pestering geisha and maiko to take pictures. Local representatives protested to the city government and asked the city government to intervene. In April of this year, visitors were banned from taking photos at the popular Kanamikoji area, a popular spot that would result in a fine of 10,000 yen.

In addition, 130 kilometers north of Kyoto City, there is a place called "Funaya", which has a total of 230 small cabins facing the sea, and small fishing boats are moored on the first floor.

However, this small town of only 2,000 people has attracted a total of 400,000 tourists in 2023 a year. Locals have had to change their habits, such as "avoiding shopping on weekends". Some residents said, "It used to be a quiet town, but now it's almost a pedestrian street." ”

The small town road of Funya, the source of the picture is from the Japan Broadcasting Association

In Kamakura City, the ancient capital of 20 million tourists a year, there is a "slam dunk" intersection that is famous among manga fans, and when the Enoshima Electric Railway passes through the entrance, the Shonan coast and the train are intertwined, and the scenery of the Sakuragi Hanamichi standing here is recreated.

However, there are so many tourists taking pictures that it spreads onto the road, making this intersection one of the most dangerous places in Kamakura.

Biei Town, Hokkaido, which is also popular with tourists, is famous for its vast farmland scenery, but farmland trampling occurs from time to time. The roads used by locals are also troubled by illegal parking by tourists.

Noise, road traffic, and garbage are problems that are easy to detect intuitively caused by "overtourism", and it also brings "deep changes to the structure of the neighborhood" to a place.

In some parts of Japan, the construction of guesthouses and hotels is growing rapidly, which has led to the suppression of demand from some residents who want to buy land and build houses.

The new long-term residents cannot move in and can only flow out, and although the tourism industry is growing, the lives of local residents are in many difficulties.

In many places, the lifestyle restaurants that local residents love to go to are gradually being replaced by chain stores for sightseeing, and the elements of the neighborhood are invisibly formed, which has an impact on the lives of residents.

This has happened in other tourist destinations around the world. In Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city, the average monthly rent has risen by 200 euros (about 1,500 yuan at the current exchange rate) in the 10 years to 2020 due to the influx of tourists, and the rising costs have exacerbated the burden on local residents.

In fact, overtourism is not only affecting local residents, but also the experience of overseas tourists.

There is a blogger named Want Want who shared the "May Day Travel Japan Persuasion Post" on social media. He actually arrived in Japan on May Day last year, but he was "deeply" impressed.

"May Day" is not only China's Golden Week, but also a 10-day large-scale holiday in Japan. Not only is it overcrowded, but hotel prices have also increased by 150% compared to normal days.

This corresponds to a female blogger's share. In early April, she traveled to Japan and booked a hotel at Tokyo's Sensoji Temple for 500 yuan a night, but after a few days, the price of the hotel had soared to 3,000 yuan, or because it was close to May Day.

There is also a local Chinese blogger in Kyoto, who recently warmly reminded on social media: "If you have a good conscience, don't come to the special forces to check in, Kiyomizuji Temple and Inari Taisha are currently all overcrowded, and it is very difficult to produce a film, otherwise you can only shoot with a telephoto lens like me." ”

Over-tourism, a countermeasure to complain about public opinion

In 2003, Japan launched the goal of "tourism nation", and there are several linkage goals behind it, including:

●Revitalization of domestic consumption. Japan's bulk product exports are dominated by automobiles and related industry chains, but Japan's domestic small and medium-sized industries - retail, catering, accommodation, and transportation - due to the aging domestic population, need to rely on foreign tourists to spend in Japan to revitalize, but this part of the income is classified as "export" by Japan.

● Stimulate the local urban economy and generate employment opportunities. As the population declined, Japan was hollowed out and the economy was sluggish. It is hoped that foreign tourism will generate more job opportunities. In 2003, the Japanese government estimated that it wanted to create 400,000 jobs.

●Promote Japanese culture to the outside world and promote international goodwill. Japan, which includes soft power industries such as anime, movies, and music, has a relatively wide fan base in Asia, Europe and the United States, and with the spread of the SNS community, it is expected to further enhance Japan's national image.

After 20 years of development, Japan's tourism goals have been updated several times, with a target of attracting 40 million overseas tourists and generating 8 trillion yen in revenue by 2020 and 60 million overseas tourists and generating 15 trillion yen in 2030.

In fact, in 2019, the pre-pandemic peak year, Japan attracted a total of 31.88 million people to visit Japan, generating 4.8 trillion yen in revenue. Although there is still some distance from the phased goal, in 2022, Japan's tourism industry has become the third largest export industry after automobiles and semiconductors, and Japan's steel industry has relinquished the third place to tourism, ranking fourth.

However, at this time, as more and more people landed on the island, the secondary problem of overtourism aforementioned arose, and a strong public opinion was formed.

In 2022, the University of Tokyo convened a meeting of 100 private opinion leaders to rate Japan's achievements in the past 20 years as a tourism nation.

Eighty-eight percent of the participants commented positively on the tourism industry's contribution to the Japanese economy, but 60 percent of the respondents did not agree that tourism has helped the people to live a better life and enjoy the community, saying that "there is a polarization between those who enjoy the benefits of tourism and those who do not", and that "excessive tourism is an obstacle to the creation of a happy town," said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, citing private opinions. ”

This situation in Japan is not unique. In Europe, the problem of overtourism has been raised more than 10 years ago. Earlier, the problem of tourism pollution caused by over-tourism has begun to be opposed by local residents.

In 1992, there was an "anti-tourism" march in Barcelona, Spain, with the goal of opposing the surging crowds, which distorted the city's environment and neighborhood elements, and even caused extreme incidents such as attacks on tourist buses and restaurants.

To this end, in 2016, Barcelona introduced a policy prohibiting the construction of new commercial facilities, hotels and apartments in historic districts. In 2017, we set up a sightseeing monitoring facility to divert tourists based on tourist trends.

At present, various parts of Japan are also learning from the experience of the world and introducing relevant policies.

These include the implementation of a ticket reservation system and a limited flow rate, support for the introduction of multilingual services, and the use of technology to deal with the shortage of manpower.

For example, in terms of reservations and restrictions, Ganri City, Hiroshima Prefecture, will start to collect the "Miyajima Visitor Tax" (there is the famous Itsukushima Shrine in the area) from October 1, 2023, and 100 yen (4.6 yuan) per person.

In addition to promoting apps that can translate various Chinese languages in real time, Japan has also opened up the gig economy in recent years. Japanese social animals, which were previously not allowed to do odd jobs in their leisure time, can use their hobbies to participate in tourism where there is a shortage of manpower.

In addition, the support of some new technologies is also being promoted. Kyoto has launched a large rental car that can ride 10 people, and a local company has donated smart garbage bins to the city government to improve the situation of no garbage cans on the streets.

The smart bin is characterized by sensors inside, and as long as it senses that the amount of garbage inside has increased, it will compress the garbage at a frequency of 1 time every 5 minutes. If the compressed garbage is full, the smart bin will notify the city staff in the form of a text message to recycle it.

Shodoshima Town, Kagawa Prefecture, near the sea, has begun experimenting with unmanned boats to support sightseeing in the face of a declining birthrate and an aging population.

Over-tourism is transformed into an exploration of sustainable tourism

It may be seen that some of the above countermeasures are more technical, or more single-point, Professor Tsuyohiro Sataki of the School of Tourism of Josai International University in Japan said that 10 years ago, there was a problem of over-tourism around the world, but from the actual situation, there is no specific medicine. Only by combining proven and effective means can we achieve a balance between residents and tourists.

In the past two years, the rise of special forces punch-card tourism in China, there are media reports, this May Day, this tourism model has also been brought overseas by domestic tourists, the characteristics of this way are: per capita cost is less, more test physical strength, and its deep understanding of the cultural essence of a place, tourists are more inclined to see the flowers.

From a local point of view, this type of tourism may be friendly to tourists' pockets, but it is questionable to what extent it can drive the cultural and tourism economy of a place.

In Japan, we are thinking about a similar question of how to change tourism from "paying for a place" to "spending money for a place".

Behind this are two different tourism mindsets and concepts. The latter is more inclined to create an in-depth travel environment for qualified tourists, fully enjoy the terroir and people of a place, and of course will spend more money, bring foreign exchange income, and also meet the individual requirements of tourists with different needs.

In the past two years, one of Japan's domestic explorations has been to "raise prices and develop high-value tourism" in addition to ensuring the general public's demand for tourism. There are also very informative discussions.

● Discuss the dual-track price system

There is public opinion in Japan that with the depreciation of the yen in recent years, Japan has become a very cheap tourist country. The increasing number of people from overseas who are coming to Japan to buy and book transportation and hotels has made it difficult for local residents to book related services smoothly, and has even contributed to the rise in prices. For example, in Japan, a bowl of ramen for 10,000 yen appeared, which cost 466 yuan, which made the locals jaw-dropping.

Public opinion believes that Japan should change its concept that "it is not bad to make money related to appearances", which means that it can explore strategies such as the dual-track system, set high prices for foreign tourists, increase revenue, and use it to maintain service standards and related costs. However, for domestic residents, they can set lower prices according to the actual situation to ensure the livelihood of domestic residents.

However, there is still a debate in Japan about whether this proposal will lead to discrimination against overseas tourists. It has been suggested that the price of attractions can be increased, but discounts can be implemented for local residents.

● Medical, food and experiential tourism for the affluent class

At the end of 2023, Japanese travel companies JTB and Mitsui Fudosan announced the development of tourism for the overseas affluent, mainly providing personalized tourism products such as cancer diagnosis and treatment, tasting Japanese food and sake, and experiencing natural climate.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the wealthy class in five countries, including the United States, Europe and the United States, and Australia, spent 4.7 trillion yen in Japan, and the wealthy class spent nine times as much as the average tourist.

Among them, "medical tourism" is the focus of this type of product, which expects overseas tourists to take advantage of Japan's medical services, and medical services account for 30% of the total spending of the wealthy class in Japan.

● Launch high-value tourism services to divert tourists from the golden route to the local area

Most first-time visitors to Japan tend to be in the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka line, but in recent years there has been a trend of tourists moving to regional cities in Japan.

Japanese industry players believe that European and American tourists generally stay in Japan for more than a week due to the long distance, and are willing to spend more on accommodation, culture, and food, while Asian tourists are more willing to make multiple trips due to the shorter distance and short time, and are most interested in shopping. Different travel options are available for both types of tourists.

For example, for tourists who are willing to travel deeply in Japan, we provide targeted products to divert people from the public space of the city to the suburbs, nature, or customized night tours, etc., and this kind of tourism products are collectively called "in-depth experience tourism".

In April, JTB, a Japanese travel agency, announced that it would focus on developing its "Adventure Tourism" product, which generally covers two of the three elements of physical activity, natural environment and cultural experience.

Specifically, in the form of hiking, cycling, mountaineering, etc., the company has launched highly customized travel products for 1-2 weeks. For example, hiking in Hokkaido's Daisetsuzan National Park costs 400,000 yen (18,600 yuan) for 4 days and 3 nights, and riding on the Seto Inland Seaside.

At the same time, visitors can also opt for a 3-day, 2-night soft adventure that is relatively easy to experience. For example, a tour to watch a sumo tournament and a walking tour to enjoy cherry blossoms in Arashiyama. According to some data, adventure tourism has formed a market of 70 trillion yen in Europe and the United States.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization has set 2017 as the "International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development", as opposed to Over Tourism, sustainable tourism, written in English as Sustainable Tourism, means to preserve culture, environment and economy, on the one hand, improve the satisfaction of local residents, on the other hand, maintain local vitality and promote economic development.

The tourism problems faced by Japan can also be found in common in the mainland. In popular tourist spots such as Beijing and Shanghai, crowds have become almost the norm, and more and more residents are posting "This is a private residence" on their doors. Special forces tourism may best meet the needs of young people who are not rich in financial resources, but for other groups of tourists who want to fully enjoy in-depth travel, the current tourism experience obviously has a lot of room for improvement.

After all, we in today's special forces will need to slow down and immerse ourselves one day, so that travel will really relax.