Aussies warned as Japan introduces new tourist ban — and more countries may follow
An influx of tourists in Japan's famous geisha district has left a sour taste in the mouths of locals, prompting a new $100 fine.
While Japan’s popularity as a holiday destination has grown exponentially over the last few years — kicking Bali out of the top spot as Aussies’ favourite hotspot — an influx of tourists has left a sour taste in the mouths of locals, prompting a new rule banning visitors from select areas.
An outcry from residents living in Kyoto’s famous geisha district called Gion urged the city’s government late last year to take action amid a surge of complaints the area’s quaint streets have become a “theme park”.
As a result, this month signs were installed “that tell tourists to stay out of our private streets”, local official Isokazu Ota said. Visitors, armed with cameras and hoping to get a glimpse of geisha and their maiko apprentices wearing their ornate kimonos, will now be greeted with warnings of a 10,000 yen fine, which comes to about A$100.
The signs say in both Japanese and English: “This is a private road, so you are not allowed to drive through it,” although the keep-out warning is aimed mainly at pedestrians, not cars, as the Japanese wording refers to generically “passing through".
While the ban covers several blocks of Gion, the district’s public streets will remain open to tourists, so the ancient capital will still be teeming with visitors from around the world — as experts warn other countries could introduce similar new laws in a bid to crack down on travellers.
More countries could crack down on tourists
“I think we are going to see an increasing tendency for this pattern of places saying, look, make sure you behave respectfully in these environments,” travel expert and editor at large for Finder, Angus Kidman, told Yahoo News Australia on Friday.
Noting similar tourist rules in Bali and Amsterdam, there is a growing trend of popular holiday destinations trying to find that fine line between not deterring tourists, but encouraging them to be “mindful” and “behave”, Kidman said.
“The other angle where we are going to see, I think, is more sort of control over these things in some of the more isolated places that are popular, but not so resourced to [cater to] heaps of tourists, then you try and control how many people come in,” he added.
“We see this happening even in Australia with some of the smaller coastal towns that are not very busy for a large chunk of the year but then suddenly over the summer holidays, it absolutely crowds out.”
This week, a controversial sign reading “Hometown not tourist town!” was spotted in Denmark, WA, and promptly removed shortly after it gained criticism.
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Why are tourists becoming a bigger problem?
There are two main reasons tourists have now become a bigger issue, Angus said, with one being an increase in people heading overseas following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“So places that hadn’t dealt with this for a while, are suddenly going, wow, there’s this pent up demand exploding and crowds are coming in and they weren’t prepared for it,” he explained, adding he believes the second source of tension is smartphones and social media.
“The aim is to share this stuff on social media quickly so I think there’s more aggression about doing that than there used to be. There’s less of a sense of, ‘Hey, maybe I should think carefully. Maybe I should ask’. There’s this view that the world is there to be photographed. And if I want to photograph it, that’s my entitlement.
“So that’s what has fed into it perhaps becoming a more visible problem than has been in the past.”
Also, with more people getting their travel advice online, there is less effort among tourists to educate themselves about the country they’re planning to visit, Joseph Cheer, a professor of Sustainable Tourism and Heritage at Western Sydney University, told Yahoo.
“One of the reasons why tourists often do things that might be unacceptable to local residents is because of a lack of awareness and education about the cultural differences between the country they come from and the country they're going to,” he said, adding travellers have a “responsibility to understand the cultural and social norms of the place they’re going to and behave accordingly”.
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