Kyoto is becoming an increasingly popular place for foreigners in Japan to visit, but at the same time, it’s drawing fewer and fewer Japanese visitors to its attractions, including fall color weeks when leaves are turning, its temples and gardens.
The Kyoto City Tourism and Convention Bureaus both report sharp drops, including a 12.2% drop in hotel stays by Japanese visitors last November compared to the previous year, and the same trend has been true for other months. Overall, there were 4.8% fewer visits than the year before, while foreign visits were up 5.3%.
City officials believe that crowds of overseas visitors, especially at key times, are making the city seem less attractive to Japanese visitors who are looking to escape crowds. They are hoping for a more balanced mix, since relying too much on overseas visitors could cause problems later if a natural or other disaster made the overseas visitors wary of visiting Japan.
