Destinations Known | Overtourism in Kyoto reaches breaking point, with ‘half-naked hikers, trespassing travellers’ making life a misery for residents
Inhabitants of the city have had enough of badly behaved visitors and officials agree that action must be taken. How can the situation improve?
In Kyoto, it is still possible to glimpse a geisha gliding past Gion’s wooden machiya buildings, her scarlet-stained lips and enigmatic air typifying traditions kept alive since Japan’s imperial era. The accompanying crush of tourists thrusting telephoto lenses and swinging selfie sticks in her direction, however, is a rude reminder that this is 2018.
When not harassing women on their way to or from work, the more than 50 million visitors (domestic and international) who visit Kyoto annually are busy misbehaving in other ways. According to an October 20 article in The Asahi Shimbun, the daily lives of the city’s residents are “marred by half-naked hikers, trespassing travellers and prolonged photo shoots”.
A recent report in The Sydney Morning Herald added dive-bombing into onsen, wearing shoes in tatami rooms and carving names into the bamboo groves of Arashiyama, a popular spot on the outskirts of Kyoto, to the growing list of terrible tourist comportment.
In an attempt to combat such behaviour, business owners and residents of Kyoto’s Gion-Shinbashi district have established a “scenery preservation” committee, signing a memorandum demanding that tourists mind their manners. “If no countermeasures are taken, the elegant view of Gion will be spoiled,” Kanji Tomita, vice representative of the group, told The Asahi Shimbun.
The committee’s directive targets shutterbugs in particular, stipulating, among other things, that they should spend less time posing and not change outfits in public. This comes as an addendum to an etiquette manual compiled by the Kyoto Convention and Visitors Bureau, which warns against cycling while under the influence of alcohol, littering, smoking outside designated areas, hassling geishas, cancelling restaurant reservations at the last minute and tipping.
