In 2024, Japan set a new tourism record as visitors from across the globe flocked to the island nation. The rising number of tourists has led to a “new challenge”
One of the friendliest countries in the world is planning to charge tourists more than locals in restaurants.
Japan is developing a strategy to manage its booming tourist industry. In 2024, the country smashed its previous tourism records as international travellers swarmed the archipelago. The nation was voted Best Country for a second year running in last year’s Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards, and it secured sixth place as the friendliest country globally with an impressive score of 93.25. Despite these accolades, Japan faces a “new challenge” due to the overwhelming tide of tourists.
Hokuto Asano, first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC, told Fox News Digital of the challenges facing the country.
“Overtourism is a new challenge for the Japanese community. So we need to pursue how to create a win-win relationship [between] Japanese local people and foreign tourists.” A potential solution cited in the report may involve a “two-tier” pricing model at eateries, theme parks, and attractions, placing a higher price tag on those coming from abroad.
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Mr Asano remarked: “The price of the restaurant, sushi restaurant in Japan, even hotel – the price is also increasing. So Japanese people sometimes say [that] Japanese people cannot enjoy the domestic tourism. But there should be a difference in the taste or preference between Japan and Japanese people and international tourists. There should be a difference in the price and also product or service toward the international tourists.”
Mr Asano noted that last year’s tourist figures hit 36 million, revealing that Japan aims to almost double its visitor numbers within the next five years, reports the Express.
Across the world, a number of countries are grappling with the booming tourism trade and attempting to work out how best to manage demand. Earlier this month, protesters hit the streets in nations across Europe, demanding legislative changes to lessen the impact of tourism on locals.
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While the campaingers in Spain have been grabbing most of the headlines, there is a growing overtourism protest movement in Italy. At the start of June campaigners came out in full force in Venice.
The watery city has been at the sharp edge of overtourism issues for years, with locals selling up and moving out of the limited supply of homes on the central island, and holiday let landlords moving in.
“We’ve been emphasising for a couple of years now that there are more tourist beds than registered residents,” said Remi Wacogne of Ocio, a civic observatory on housing. “Tourism is physically and practically taking over homes.”
In Venice, a couple of dozen protesters unfurled a banner calling for a halt to new hotel beds in the lagoon city in front of two recently completed structures, one in the popular tourist destination’s historic centre where activists say the last resident, an elderly woman, was kicked out last year. The upcoming wedding of Amazon founder Jezz Bezos in the city has also become a point of tension among overtourism protesters.