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Bangkok Post - Coronavirus Chased Off Tourists--Lots of Locals Don"t Want Them Ever Flocking Back
Coronavirus Chased Off Tourists--Lots of Locals Don't Want Them Ever Flocking Back

Coronavirus Chased Off Tourists--Lots of Locals Don't Want Them Ever Flocking Back

In places such as Japan's Kyoto, people are split on whether the visiting masses were worth the trouble.

Nishiki Market, a place some Japanese had avoided in recent years as more foreign tourists came to visit. afp
Nishiki Market, a place some Japanese had avoided in recent years as more foreign tourists came to visit. afp

KYOTO: The bustle of tourists has disappeared from this ancient capital--only to be replaced by dissension over whether they should ever be welcomed back.

Mimiko Takayasu, 80 years old, is proprietress of a century-old tea house where geisha entertain wealthy Japanese with traditional music and dance. Until the coronavirus pandemic, the streets of Gion, Kyoto's high-end entertainment district, were packed with amateur paparazzi trying to get snapshots of apprentice geisha called maiko.

"All of Gion was turned into a visitor attraction, like an amusement park, and maiko were treated like Mickey Mouse," Ms. Takayasu said.

She said she doesn't want tourists around even after the pandemic eases. Others in Kyoto, however, say their livelihood depends on restoring the pre-pandemic tourist trade.

The debate is playing out in some other cities, particularly in Europe, where the current quiet has sometimes inspired a desire to return to the days before cheap air tickets allowed the masses to flood the globe's cultural centers.

"Kyoto is not a tourist town," said Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa, 69. "We're not going to go back to pre-corona tourism."

Mr. Kadokawa would like it to be known that Kyoto is also a thriving technology hub with headquarters of companies like Nintendo Co. and Kyocera Corp. Still, it's hard to give up the $3 billion that foreign visitors spent last year in the city.

Masamitsu Fujita, 43, built two guesthouses several years ago for backpackers. He needs about $15,000 a month to pay back loans, although he has put off creditors for now with government help.

Bringing back foreign visitors is "a matter of life and death," Mr. Fujita said. "I will never understand the feelings of people in Gion."

Between 2011, the year of eastern Japan's great earthquake, and 2019, the number of foreign visitors to Japan quintupled to about 32 million. Many found their way to Kyoto, famed for sights such as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion and the Nijo Castle, home to emperors for centuries. Foreign hotel brands rushed to cash in. A Park Hyatt opened last year with a basic room going for about $1,000 a night.

Even before the pandemic, Kyoto had begun to take steps to limit visitors. It imposed a small tax on overnight stays, and business owners, putting aside traditional Kyoto hospitality, started posting signs admonishing visitors to behave themselves. The Gion business district kept out dollar stores and burger stands.

So far, the mayor and the peace-and-quiet camp have yet to propose any additional sweeping curbs on tourism, figuring they have some time because Japan's ban on foreign visitors due to the pandemic is likely to remain for at least several months.

But Mr. Kadokawa said he wanted to limit visits by those who might think of chasing maiko on the streets for photos or walking in forbidden areas.

"I would like those who appreciate the culture and history of Kyoto to come and spend a relaxing time," he said.

A similar mix of sentiments has emerged in Amsterdam. Before the pandemic, it had already raised taxes and banned tours of the red-light district over concerns about crowds.

Now people there enjoy the quiet, said Heleen Jansen, a spokeswoman for the city's marketing agency. The city is talking about finding a better balance and last month prohibited room rentals in certain areas, but it also doesn't want to present a hostile face to the world.

"We are also in an open, international society," said Ms. Jansen. "It's strange to say, 'You can't come.'"

At the 400-year-old Nishiki Market in Kyoto, Hiroko Takemoto, 86, and her husband of 60 years sell locally grown red and black beans. Tourists "just talk loudly and take pictures but don't buy much," she said. "Some of our old-time customers who were saying before that they couldn't come because of the crowds, have returned to us."

She keeps handwritten signs in English and Chinese among the beans that tell visitors not to touch items because they break easily.

Keisuke Tagami, a 74-year-old real-estate investor from southern Japan, said he had visited Kyoto dozens of times for sightseeing but had stayed away for the past few years because he believed there were too many Chinese tourists in large groups.

He came back recently. Holding a small bottle of local sake he had just bought, Mr. Tagami said, "The way Kyoto is now is the best."

Nishiki Market fish shop owner Fusao Mita, 79, didn't agree. He said Chinese visitors were among his best customers because they enjoy grilled eel--a dish that Western visitors tend to find less appetizing. He said people were more polite after the market put up signs in Chinese and English asking them not to eat while walking.

Mr. Kadokawa, the mayor, said the city wasn't singling out anyone as it rethought tourism. "It's wrong to exclude Chinese," he said.

Business owners in Gion, the high-end entertainment quarter, gathered on a recent afternoon at a cafe to discuss Kyoto post-pandemic. They nixed a proposed business that would rent tourists a kimono and allow them to experience the tea ceremony. The group feared tourists would walk outside wearing the garments in ignorance of proper kimono style, a Gion gaucherie.

Isokazu Ota, a leader of the group, told his companions, "Gion is now back to the good old days. You must be enjoying it." As people around the table chuckled, Mr. Ota went on, "But if we don't do anything, they'll swarm back like before."

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