NOT AN AMUSEMENT PARK: Japanese City of Kyoto Bars Tourists From Popular ‘Geisha District’
It’s a fine line between using your culture and traditions to help boost your tourism, and having these same culture and traditions destroyed by over-exposition and abuse by the tourists you attracted.
Take Kyoto, for example, where local officials have at long last decided to shut off access to its world-famous popular Geisha district, because the ‘paparazzi’ tourists are so disruptive and rude, harassing the ‘globally recognized Japanese women artists’.
The prohibition starts in April.
The historic Gion district will ban sightseers and tourists into the alleys and streets housing geisha and maiko (teenager trainee geisha).
Independent reported:
“Known to be a tourist-heavy spot, Gion is thronged by hundreds of thousands of people visiting Kyoto who seek to photograph Japan’s famous professional entertainers known for their trademark kimonos and white faces.
