If you were
building your budget for your long-awaited trip to Japan, you're going to have
to add a few zeros to your savings account. The historic city of Kyoto has
officially grown tired of being treated like a crowded amusement park, and has
decided to hit mass tourists in the only place where it really hurts: the
wallet. The local government has just announced a brutal increase to its hotel
tax, and we are not talking about a simple adjustment for inflation.
The
price of saturating the old capital
Under the
new overhaul of the lodging tax system, the rates guests must pay per night
could skyrocket up to 10 times the current rate. The system
will work in tiers: the more expensive the hotel room you book, the higher the
percentage of taxes you will be charged. The message from the authorities is
quite clear: if you want the privilege of sleeping in the city of a thousand
temples, you are going to have to finance its survival.
What triggered this extreme measure? The infamous overtourism. Following the reopening of post-pandemic borders, Kyoto has been suffering an unprecedented invasion. Local residents have been complaining for years that their daily lives are hell: they can't get on public buses, trains are jammed with people with giant suitcases, and traditional alleys have lost all their peace. All the extra money raised by this aggressive tax will be reinvested directly in infrastructure maintenance, sanctuary preservation, and measures to ease the headache of local citizens.
The
hotel industry panics
As
expected, the owners of hotel chains and tour operators were not amused by the
news. Several industry groups have warned that slashing such a high tax on
tourists, especially on luxury accommodations, could scare away visitors and
make Kyoto less competitive with other less aggressive Japanese cities.
Of course,
from the city government's perspective, "scaring away" a portion of
mass tourism is exactly the main goal of the measure. They want less quantity
and higher quality of tourists.
