Since the end of the Covid pandemic, foreign tourists have returned to Japan in droves. Some town halls are considering imposing higher rates on these visitors. This is a track that the city of Kyoto is working on.
And for a handful of yen more… The city of Kyoto is one of the most visited cities in Japan, along with Tokyo and Osaka, and the municipality is therefore considering a specific rate for tourists using public transport. . In 2019, before Asia closed with the Covid-19 pandemic, Kyoto had welcomed 53 million visitors of all nationalities during the year.
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This year, tourism has picked up very strongly. And the city could almost regain its 2019 level of attendance. If this is a good thing for companies working in the sector, hotels, restaurants and traditional kimono rental companies, the population is starting to complain.
In the local press, there are more and more articles about all the inconveniences of this invasion.
Some neighborhoods are completely overwhelmed by this tourist wave: it is no longer possible to get on the bus, for example. This has prompted the town hall to create differentiated tariffs, which will also help to replenish its coffers which are almost empty.
Differentiated rates
Soon, there will be two separate prices for the same trip by public transport. Visitors would pay more for their ticket. Japanese visitors from other cities would be accommodated in the same way, and would also have to pay the tourist surcharge.
Today, the town hall says it is thinking about a practical system where all residents of the city could receive a kind of electronic pass which would automatically apply the local rate to them. Visitors would buy their ticket individually with the increased price. The town hall says it is also considering setting up perhaps two kinds of buses: those for locals and those for tourists.
Kyoto must now get its idea approved by the Ministry of Tourism. The government must say whether this practice of two tariffs, which is very rare in the world, is really legal and is not, in fact, an unfair trade policy.