[spandrew]

A future where Miyazaki prefecture become littered with grandparent-fueled Ghibli characters and quickly become overrun with tourists...

Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...

Time will tell...

[jacobgkau]

You can't just tell everyone to not do anything cool because it might attract too many tourists. That's a race to the bottom of a boring world.

[mc3301]

There are so many cool things like this all over Japan, and only a very small percentage of them get completely run-over with international tourists. Even an hour or two outside of Tokyo, many not-so-hidden treasures like this can be found. And there aren't many tourists at these spots.

Take last year's "Lawson with a view of Mount Fuji" thing. The city had to to take all kinds of counter-measures to international tourists flocking there just to take a photo. Meanwhile, there are dozens more Lawsons in the area with epic views of Mount Fuji in the background, and not a tourist in sight.

[Yeul]

Tokyo has been overrun by Westerners since it was still called Edo. Commodore Perry and all that.

[mc3301]

Westerners in Tokyo is less that 0.5% of the city's population. Definitely not overrun.

[movedx]

Yes and no.

Yes, I agree, because life would get boring really quickly. People should be able to express themselves (in a civil, legal manner) so that the world can be more colourful and filled with art and beauty.

But also no, I don't agree. Have you seen the impact tourism in Japan has had on the local ecosystem as of late? They've literally banned tourists in some areas because frankly: more tourists act like animals. They litter, act rude and disrespectful, and are just obnoxious. Also, in a lot of cases, they provide little to no financial growth or benefit to the local economy. Look at Venice, for example.

So I think when making something like this, there has to be some degree of forward thinking around how it's going to divert (tourist) traffic to the area and what impact that's going to have on the locals.

[stef25]

> Look at Venice, for example.

No patience for these complaints. Either you want tourist money or you don't. Seems like half the city lives off it and the other half hates it. That's an internal problem.

Same in Barcelona.

[ivell]

I think the main concern is about the capacity to handle that many tourists. As the population increases and general prosperity increases, amount of tourists will correspondingly increase. There are not that many tourist spots for a given location and causes overrun. There need to be some throttling function. Probably increase the cost/tax, or reduce the visas. Or increase the ability to handle so many tourists. I don't know how this can be done. May be better infrastructure and new places of interests.

[movedx]

How ignorant.

[globalnode]

that's probably because some are profiting while others are inconvenienced by it. different experiences are bound to happen.

[hiAndrewQuinn]

>little to no financial growth or benefit to the local economy. Look at Venice

A quick Google search confirms tourism is the dominant industry in Venice. The claim that this fuels "little to no financial growth", is therefore first-order backwards. If you could set forth an edict and gradually empty Venice out into a touristless town over the next 5 years, you would probably see economic growth tumble downwards, not up.

Now capitalism would eventually catch up, it always does. Italians are cool people and hard workers. But ask e.g. the Baltic states whether they're secretly happy they lost ~a century of economic growth before finally getting the chance to enter a boom time, because it meant their economies stayed local. Then ask them another question: Suppose you didn't have much industry of note, but tourists just loved you and flocked from all over the world to see you, would you take that? I think you'd have a lot of takers.

One should a much stronger argument than "But... but tourism is icky" before you go messing with one of the primary economic levers of a whole city. Preferably an argument backed up by graphs and forecasts, because it runs contrary to basic economic wisdom. Absent those I feel comfortable guessing that the median Japanese town which bans tourists will probably suffer economically for it, in no small part because that suggests tourists were at some point a big deal. Any eventual industrial rebound, if it happens at all, will happen because they gradually became cheaper to work in than surrounding areas (I wonder why?), and would not be sufficient to make up for the lost compound growth of the 5-10 years where a key industry for that area was kneecapped.

[movedx]

> A quick Google search confirms tourism is the dominant industry in Venice. The claim that this fuels "little to no financial growth", is therefore first-order backwards.

How much of the money stays in Venice? Just because you handed over cash at a till in a cafe in Venice, doesn't mean a single local sees a lick of that money. They might not even see a lick of the taxes, neither. I've been to Venice... have you? Thanks for Googling about Venice, but try going and speaking to the locals, because I have.

[XuMiao]

The claim that “tourism has little financial benefits to the local economy in Venice” is debatable and context-dependent. Here's a detailed breakdown addressing both why the claim may be true in some aspects, and why it may be misleading or false in others.

---

Arguments Supporting the Claim:

1. High Leakage of Tourist Revenue

Much of the tourist spending in Venice ends up outside the local economy:

Many hotels, cruise lines, and travel agencies are owned by foreign or non-local entities.

Revenue often flows to large tour operators, not to Venetians themselves.

Day-trippers (especially cruise passengers) spend very little per capita.

2. Overtourism and Cost Externalization

The externalities of mass tourism (e.g. garbage collection, water bus crowding, maintenance of ancient infrastructure) are borne by the municipality and residents, not by tourists.

The economic cost of wear and tear on fragile historical structures is immense and undercompensated.

3. Loss of Local Businesses and Services

Traditional shops and services (bakeries, fishmongers, schools) are being replaced by souvenir shops and Airbnbs, which often serve short-term tourists.

This creates a "hollow economy" where real life becomes unviable for locals.

4. Depopulation and Real Estate Inflation

Real estate is increasingly purchased by investors for short-term rentals, pushing locals out and reducing residential density.

Venice’s population has dropped from ~175,000 in 1950s to under 50,000 today in the historic center.

5. Low Multiplier Effect

Much of the employment created is low-paid, seasonal, precarious, and lacks career development.

Limited reinvestment into the community fabric (education, public health, sustainable infrastructure).

---

Counterarguments (Why Tourism Still Brings Economic Benefit):

1. Tourism Is a Major Employer

A significant portion of Venetian jobs is in hospitality, transport, and retail, all tied to tourism.

Completely removing tourism would collapse the current local job market.

2. Tax Revenues

The city imposes tourist taxes (tassa di soggiorno) on accommodations and more recently, even entrance fees for day-trippers.

These can help fund infrastructure and conservation—if well-managed.

3. Export Substitute

Venice doesn’t have a diversified industrial base. Tourism is one of the few export-equivalent services Venice can offer due to its geographic isolation and fragile ecosystem.

---

Conclusion

While tourism contributes significantly in gross economic terms, the net local financial benefit is undermined by:

revenue leakage,

rising costs of living,

poor job quality,

and infrastructure stress.

Thus, the statement is partially true: mass tourism as currently structured in Venice is unsustainable and offers diminishing marginal returns to locals, especially compared to the burdens it imposes

[bobthepanda]

Kyushu is quite far off the beaten tourist path, so I doubt it would get a lot of non-domestic traveling.

[muststopmyths]

I believe you’re underestimating the rapacious hunger of the click economy

[geodel]

Can't really blame click economy when travel is promoted as universal good from local, state and national governments all over the world. Travel used to be few times in a lifetime thing. Now it is like everyone should be traveling few times a year at least.

[mvdtnz]

> Now it is like everyone should be traveling few times a year at least

You and I live in different worlds. I only know one person who travels that often, after he became wealthy from a successful buy out. Overwhelmingly the people around me travel a handful of times in a lifetime.

[anonzzzies]

Most people I know are not rich but have or had ok jobs and they all travel 4-5x / year. Most do all inclusive trips mixed with once a year a longer trip. It is quite weird as I myself am somewhat confused how they manage; when asked they mostly say that they dont have other use for the money anyway.

[teekert]

Like eating meat daily. At some point the masses want, and get, what was once just for the elite.

[Tade0]

Or driving cars for that matter.

[tokioyoyo]

Don’t underestimate domestic Japanese tourism! To be fair, it feels a bit different, compared to international, as there’s no language barrier and etc.

[FlyingSnake]

Isletwald in CH or Hallstatt in Austria were also quite far off the beaten path. That didn’t stop hordes of tourists from overrunning them.

[fitsumbelay]

possible but more a corner case that additionally takes one along the opposite vibe trajectory to the story's

so ... why?

[ekianjo]

> Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...

Kids are becoming a rarity in Japan

[danielscrubs]

Luckily tourists are a political problem, which the corona restrictions clearly showed.

[squigz]

Doesn't pessimism like this exhaust you?

[zombiwoof]

As least Japan doesn’t have a bunch of sheep tech bros building a Burning Man every year pretending they are cool