Go somewhere else: Overtourism is no longer just a European problem

When former Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi – nicknamed “Lionheart” for his luxuriant mane – launched a 2003 campaign to dramatically increase foreign visitor numbers to a recession-prone Japan, he couldn’t have conceived that, more than two decades later, the act of taming such a rise in tourism numbers would become akin to wrestling a tiger.

Kyoto’s tourist numbers have surged to unmanageable levels.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

In 2000, Japan, devoid of any serious tourism promotion, received just four million international visitors in a country of nearly 127 million.

In 2024, that figure exploded to more than 33 million, including a record 765,000 Australians, up 74 per cent on the previous year, as Japan’s ageing population had declined to under 124 million.

Japan’s previous prime minister, Fumio Kishida, had targeted 60 million tourists by 2030, a figure that has alarmed many Japanese about the rapid growth of inbound tourism.

For Kyoto, Japan’s imperial capital until 1868, tourist numbers have become so onerous the normally docile Japan National Tourist Organisation in Australia recently took the extraordinary step of calling on Australians to visit somewhere else in Japan.

Although JNTO’s self-stated mission is to ensure that the benefits of tourism are shared as widely as possible, such appeals are symptomatic of a global condition. That is, too many tourists descending on too few iconic places while other under-visited cities, towns and regions crave, largely in vain, for a piece of the action.

Previously, the syndrome was more of a European phenomenon. Cities such as Venice, Amsterdam, Prague and Dubrovnik have been among the most affected, but the problem has now spread to other continents.

It’s become such a common issue (Rome was recently forced to regulate the overflowing volume of visitors to its Trevi Fountain), that 2025 is set to be a make-or-break year for tourism, an industry that arguably does far more good than harm. For cities like Kyoto, the breaking point appears to have been reached.

The Girona Cathedral, as featured in Game of Thrones, one of the Spanish city’s most emblematic monumentsCredit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

When I was in Barcelona recently, albeit in the low season, I tried to heed the advice of anti-tourism activists – the ones who infamously squirted water pistols at hapless foreign tourists last year – and took a rewarding and enjoyable mid-week day trip to Girona.

Less than 40 minutes by train from the saturated Catalan capital, it’s a pleasant and historic regional city that has also served as a location for Game of Thrones.

Yet Girona appears on at least one 2025 “next must-visit cities” list, which means it could become a mini-Barcelona if its burghers aren’t ready to act before tourism numbers become so unmanageable that locals turn off tourism and turn on visitors.

Meanwhile, Kyoto is encouraging travellers who do visit to utilise the city as a base to visit attractive surrounding places, easily and speedily reached by Japan’s superior public transport, that, while close to Kyoto, receive little or no benefit from its rampant success.

Of course, it’s always tempting to blame overtourism on social media but it does appear that many tourists are travelling without properly researching a destination and with less desire to experience, understand and honour a foreign culture than they are to strike it off their “to-do” list.

No wonder “quality over quantity” is a long-held though difficult to implement desire of many crowded destinations.

Earlier this week, in an interview with the ABC, Anne Hardy, an associate professor at the University of Tasmania, accused TikTok posts of creating damaging perceptions among Antarctic tourists that were at odds with the values of the international Antarctic Treaty that promotes peace, science and environmental protection.

She cited tourists behaving poorly and dangerously on cruise ships breaching biosecurity regulations in Antarctica and she said a historic building on Deception Island, near the Antarctic Peninsula, had recently been sprayed with graffiti.

Graffiti on a historic building on at Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island in Antarctica.Credit: IAATO / Fede Arribere

Yet visitor numbers to Antarctica, albeit a fragile environment, are minuscule when compared to those for a country like Japan. Tourism is still largely limited to specific areas of the so-called white continent.

Japan has gone from being a destination visited ostensibly by those with a profound interest and respect for its culture to one that attracts more mainstream tourists ignorant, at times blissfully, of the strict codes and mores that govern the unique society.

“The advice I give people is to remember that you’re a guest in Japan,“ writes Tokyo resident Jay Allen on the website unseen-japan.com. “Being a respectful guest means following local customs, such as not eating while walking, as well as keeping the volume of your voice low inside stores, trains and restaurants.”

Travel titles in mainstream media, including Traveller in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald which I (full disclosure) help edit, aren’t beyond reproach.

Yet many have regularly encouraged readers to travel beyond the obvious places, in order to disperse the undoubted benefit of tourism to a wider number of destinations.

Unfortunately, to an extent, it’s preaching to the converted. The unsexy message of “responsible tourism” is difficult to communicate to the hundreds of millions of people around the affluent developed world who consider travel, correctly or not, as a right, not a privilege.

The tourism industry, already a significant contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions, must play a meaningful role in dispersing visitor numbers away from too few places.

Yet some segments clearly aren’t getting the message. Parts of the cruise industry, seemingly deaf to the growing warning signs, are set to launch even bigger cruise ships.

“There are limitations due to restrictions of access at ports and the market is limited as these ships do not appeal to everyone, but we could still potentially see a 10,000-passenger ship in the next decade,” predicted Tony Andrews, managing director of Cruise.co.uk, in a recent report in the UK’s Telegraph.