Kyoto Residents Blame Chinese Tourists for Overcrowding Amid Geopolitical Tensions

The report released earlier this month by the Kyoto City Tourism Association’s destination management organisation said many local residents assumed crowded public transport, congestion at popular sights and rising hotel prices were being driven by mainland Chinese tour groups.

But relatively few Chinese visitors travelled to the ancient Japanese capital in the past couple of years, the report said, largely because Beijing pressured its citizens to holiday elsewhere amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Analysts said near-daily media coverage about China had amplified residents’ assumptions – and grumbles – and likely contributed to the hostility.

In recent weeks, Japanese media reported on Chinese vessels conducting maritime research within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the arrest in China of two Japanese nationals on suspicion of smuggling restricted rare earth products and the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a Chinese submarine into the South Pacific.

Takuya Horie, director of planning and marketing for the Kyoto City Tourism Association, cited several reasons for the misconception that many Chinese tourists were in Kyoto.