Destinations known | Chinese flock to Japan for cherry blossom season, but are they welcome?
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In bloom
The cherry blossoms came early this year, painting Japan’s public parks in delicate shades of pastel pink. With them, came the sakura tourists – including large numbers of Chinese – not all of whom have been on their best behaviour.
According to a story published by English-language Chinese news portal Yicai Global on March 12, about 600,000 Chinese travellers were expected to spend as much as eight billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) during the 2018 season.
Thus begins Japan’s complicated relationship with tourism.
Last August, The Japan Times ran a story on “good” and “bad” tourists. The country would like more of the former; the latter were described as noisy, having bad manners, leaving a trail of detritus behind them – the list was long. “The current gripes refer to Asian tourists,” outlined the article, in case anyone had any doubts, and suggests education to be the solution.
