(TAN): Shopkeepers in Kyoto, Japan have launched an “empty tourism” campaign to lure tourists back to the city which is usually thronged by visitors from all over the world, reports said.
As per reports, the flow of tourists in Japan’s earlier capital went down as an aftereffect of the coronavirus outbreak.
Kyoto, with 17 UNESCO world heritage sites, reportedly received so many tourists in recent years that it complained of problems related to overtourism. But with the new virus outbreak which led the Chinese authorities to impose restrictions on outbound overseas group tours, the city is facing a massive drop in tourists so that local merchants said nothing similar has happened in the past three decades, reports said.
Chinese visitors reportedly account for one of the country’s largest international tourist groups, with Kyoto being one of their favourite destinations. As a result, the fall in visitor numbers from China has dealt a huge blow to the city’s business, as per reports. With the increase in the number of coronavirus cases in Japan, more domestic and foreign tourists are deferring travel, aggravating the problem in the process, reports said.
In order to address the matter, shop owners from five shopping streets in Kyoto’s Arashiyama neighbourhood have created an advertising campaign to urge tourists to visit the area, labelled “suitemasu Arashiyama”, which translates to “empty Arashiyama” or “there are few people around in Arashiyama”, according to reports.
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The posters designed for the campaign reportedly feature images of four popular tourist sites in Arashiyama to show how prospective visitors could enjoy the locations with no crowds to mind. One of them reportedly depicts a monkey with the message: “There haven’t been more monkeys than humans in a long time.”
Another shows the famous bamboo grove in Arashiyama, along with hastags such as “#nopeople” and “#nowisthetime”, reports said.
Around 300 of these posters have reportedly been printed, which will be displayed along Kyoto’s shopping streets and the Hankyu Osaka Umeda Station in Osaka.
