(TAN): The island of Miyajima in western Japan will now charge tourists a fee to visit, reports said.
Also known as Itsukushima, the island in the Hiroshima Bay is thronged for its orange Torii Gate that is partially submerged during high tide, and its 12th century Itsukushima Shrine. The popular day-trip attraction for visitors to the area can be accessed by a ferry from Hiroshima.
As per reports, the proposed rate for the admission fee is ¥100 (USD1 approximately) per person. Even though the tax will not be very expensive, the funds could prove to be a major income for the island – around 4.31 million people reportedly visited Miyajima last year, while only 1,600 odd people inhabit the island.
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Taro Matsumoto, the new mayor of Hatsukaichi city in Hiroshima prefecture came up with the idea of imposing a tax on visitors.
“…it is necessary to secure new financial resources in order to continuously maintain quality of the Island as a tourist spot,” he was quoted by CNN as saying.
“The island needs maintenance and repair work, including placing power lines underground and repairing roads. I’m focused on introducing the tax as a stable source of income,” reports quoted him as saying.
The tax could reportedly be collected in three ways – as a supplementary fee on the ferry rides, raising the tax for the ferry operators, or charging the tourists when they use facilities on the island. Funds collected will be used towards waste disposal, conservation of the environment and developments on the ferry, reports said.
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However, this is not the only Japanese destination to consider a tourist tax. Driven by soaring tourism numbers, especially ahead of the 2020 Olympics, the Japanese government had introduced a “sayonara” tax earlier this year, reports said. Under the tax, anyone travelling to Japan with a round-trip ticket will reportedly have to pay an extra USD9 per person. Also, four islands in Okinawa prefecture have reportedly added a fee to the ferry tickets.
Many other parts of the world have implemented or are on the verge of introducing such taxes to keep a check on overtourism. While Scottish Highlands could impose a tax on wild campers from 2021, the city of Edinburgh is also expected to introduce a transient visitor levy of GBP2 (USD2.59 approximately). Bhutan, on the other hand, might get dearer for visitors from India, Bangladesh and Maldives although international tourists already spend between USD200 and USD250 per day per person.
