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Kyoto's love-hate relationship with tourists endures as yen weakens
With the yen JPY= at its weakest in more the two decades and a revival in global travel, Kyoto's hard-hit hotels and traditional sweet shops should have been bracing for a tourism surge. Instead, only some visitors have trickled in as Japan is allowing a small number of tourists to enter the country after easing curbs in June.
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Maiko geisha walking on a street of Gion in Kyoto, Japan. (Shutterstock/Juri Pozzi)
P
oring over the ledger at her more than 230-year-old liquor shop in Kyoto, Yasuko Fujii has mixed feelings about the return of foreign tourists who would crowd the streets of Japan's ancient capital before the pandemic - and buy lots of whisky and wine.
Her ambivalence reflects a broader uncertainty in Japan about welcoming tourist hordes amid fears they could trigger a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, even though a weak yen would be a big draw for tourists and a boon for local businesses.
"From a business standpoint, we want foreign tourists to come," the 79-year-old Fujii said. "But from an emotional standpoint, we want customers from Japan."
Millions of tourists from China, South Korea and Southeast Asia used to throng the Nishiki market where Fujii's shop is located before curbs set in two years ago. Locals often felt overwhelmed and many stopped coming, she said.
Japan's opening up to mass tourism over the last decade brought an economic boost - a record 32 million tourists visited in 2019 and spent some $38 billion - but that also led to complaints of shoddy behaviour at sites such as Kyoto's temples.
Known for its narrow streets of tea houses and "ryokan" inns, Kyoto has been both badly hit and deeply relieved by the absence of foreign tourists, locals say.
With the yen JPY= at its weakest in more the two decades and a revival in global travel, Kyoto's hard-hit hotels and traditional sweet shops should have been bracing for a tourism surge. Instead, only some visitors have trickled in as Japan is allowing a small number of tourists to enter the country after easing curbs in June.
