‘Bullet climbing’ crisis on the cards at Mount Fuji with Japan struggling to accommodate all the tourists flocking to the country
- With unprecedented visitor numbers expected at Mount Fuji, many who can’t find beds in mountain huts will scale the peak overnight, and could get into trouble
- It’s one aspect of a tourist accommodation shortage caused partly by hotels and inns failing to staff up following the pandemic. Are foreign workers the answer?
As far as the post-Covid rebound of tourism in Japan goes, there’s good news and there’s bad news.
“Many hotels and ryokan, Japanese-style inns, that let employees go at the height of the pandemic are now struggling to secure workers to accommodate a sharp increase in guests,” reports the Japan Times. “Many in the industry are worried about not being able to fully harness recovering demand.”
The Japanese newspaper quotes an Osaka hotelier as saying: “Some hotels have reduced room availability.”
Japan is ‘rammed’ with visitors – and Chinese tourists aren’t even back yet
And there are worries about a surge in “bullet climbing” up Japan’s most sacred landmark.
“With Mount Fuji opening up [in July] for this year’s climbing season, Japan’s tallest mountain is expected to see an unprecedented number of visitors this year,” reports the newspaper.
“Reflecting concerns about a possible rise in the number of people becoming ill or injured due to ‘bullet climbing’, or hurrying to the peak through the night by people who were not able to book mountain huts, local municipalities and others have asked Yamanashi Prefecture to restrict the number of climbers.”
Not only are there not enough huts to cope with renewed demand from domestic and international tourists, there are also too few buses.
“An official at a ryokan in Kyoto pointed to the ‘near collapse’ of the local transportation network, due to the long lines of tourists forming on a daily basis at bus stops in the city.”
Heading to Kyoto? Avoid heaving hotspots with new map that predicts crowds
Ominously, the newspaper quoted a local resident as saying she and other public transport users “are getting increasingly frustrated”.
Tourism industries in many countries struggled to find sufficient staff as business ramped up again after many long months of Covid-induced shutdown, but the problem in Japan is complicated by its demographics.
With the rapidly ageing nation facing a shortage of more than 11 million workers across all sectors by 2040, according to the independent Recruit Works Institute, the country may have to say konnichiwa to crowds of immigrant workers as well as tourists.
No stopping
Amsterdam has become the latest port to ban cruise ships.
The city council voted recently to ban cruise liners from docking at Amsterdam’s main terminal from an as yet unspecified date to help curb the number of tourists roaming the city’s streets and protect the environment from ship emissions.
The Netherlands’ largest city is one of a number around the world that are turning their backs on the dubious benefits of the cruise industry.
Covid-19 cured overtourism. European cities want it to stay that way
In February, the city council of Monterey Bay, in California, in the United States, removed landing services – it doesn’t have the authority to issue an outright ban – which means that cruise operators would have to hire staff themselves to process passengers at the city’s dock, which in a normal pre-Covid year saw up to 12 ships come alongside.
The council made its decision to prevent bilge water, sewage, greywater, ballast water and solid-waste discharges – accidental or otherwise – from polluting the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
A hot Messi
He shoots, he scores, he makes a sandwich.
Hard Rock International has teamed up with soccer sensation Lionel Messi to bring the Messi Chicken Sandwich to Hard Rock Cafes and Hard Rock Hotels around the world.
Apparently one of Messi’s favourite dishes when growing up in Argentina, the “Milanese style” sandwich consists of chicken breast topped with melted provolone cheese and a herbed aioli.
As tasty as that sounds, we reckon any sandwich named after Messi should be made not with chicken, but with GOAT.
