Bezüglich des Plans der Präfektur Kagoshima, mit dem Kyushu Shinkansen Besucher nach Japan zu locken, der im ursprünglichen Haushaltsvorschlag für die Gesamtrechnung für das Haushaltsjahr 2026 enthalten war, gab es Kommentare wie: "Steuergelder sollten an die Einwohner der Präfektur zurückgegeben werden, nicht an Ausländer." wurden in der Zeitung Minami Nippon Shimbun und auf Social-Networking-Sites veröffentlicht. Während einige Menschen Hoffnung auf den Plan haben, den einfachen Fahrpreis vom Bahnhof Hakata zum Bahnhof Kagoshima-Chuo vollständig zu subventionieren, nennen sie es "eine Initiative, die einen Versuch wert ist," Die Mehrheit der Kommentare ist kritisch. Die Präfektur hat außerdem rund 170 Telefonanrufe und E-Mails (Stand 16.) erhalten, in denen sie sich über die Umsetzung des Plans beschwerten "unfair" und dass Ausländer bevorzugt behandelt werden.
Laut der Tourismusstatistik der Präfektur für 2012 beliefen sich die Ausgaben der Touristen für Unterkunft, Essen, Trinken, Transport und andere Ausgaben an ihren Reisezielen (Tourismusausgaben) auf etwa 236,8 Milliarden Yen. Die durchschnittlichen Ausgaben pro Person und Reise für Japaner für die Unterkunft beliefen sich auf 30.331 Yen (ein Rückgang um 14 Yen im Vergleich zum Vorjahr), während die Ausgaben für ausländische Besucher in Japan bei 85.906 Yen (plus 9.725 Yen) lagen, also fast dreimal so viel, was sie für die Tourismuswirtschaft der Präfektur von entscheidender Bedeutung macht.
https://373news.com/news/local/detail/229294/
9 Kommentare
Amount spent per person doesn’t tell you much without knowing how many people came. I expect it to be not very many for foreign tourists.
I can understand why local residents are upset at this proposal
Foreigners mostly travel to major cities anyway, so the idea is to get them to go spend money in other regions too. And isn’t Japan currently implementing a dual pricing system for foreigners at restaurants? How is that discrimination?
While I’m inclined to agree with the sentiment, Kyushu isn’t exactly the most popular tourist spot in Japan. It’s very much a rural area, and as such, doesn’t generate a whole lot of revenue outside for their exports.
Given how weak the yen currently is and how much foreigners are willing to spend when they visit, while yeah, it’s preferential treatment from the view of a regular citizen, as far as the local government is concerned, the amount the prefecture stands to gain is higher, and there’s not much else they can really do to convince more spending tourists to come visit when most of them typically keep to areas like Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo unless there’s something particular to pull them all the way down there.
The locals are right to complain, and anyone in any other country would do the same, because they’re paying for the taxes and want those benefits to return to them. The government looks like it’s trying to do that by using it in a way that just doesn’t achieve that in a direct capacity.
Kagoshima is super beautiful yet super underrated. Mostly because it’s an extra couple of days you need. Adding incentives is a great way to get more ppl. there.
Also it’s not really money that goes to foreign tourists – it’s money that goes back into the Japanese economy.
Two things can be true. It is preferential treatment. It will be good for tourism.
It is a pretty strange way to use tax money. So many other ways and places tax money can be used to subsidize industry. For example, why not spend this money to provide zero-interest loans to local startups? I think what has happened here is several influential local politicians received quite preferential, borderline illegal service from local hospitality firms. It’s so much easier to wine and dine (and bribe) officials if you own the facilities to do it. I’m pretty sure this is how we ended up with go-to and cool Japan subsidies and initiatives. Japan is cheap, and so are its politicians. I honestly think politicians should actually be paid more so they can’t be fucking bribed with 100,000 yen shouhinken.
I think the major issue here is that Japan doesn’t do a great job, quite generally, of marketing itself. Kagoshima, along with a number of other places, has some things to attract tourists. But it’s just not well marketed. Maybe spend some money on that rather than pissing people off by giving foreigners cheap tickets. That would piss me off too.
It’s marketing spend to attract tourists. It makes sense to get rid of it if they don’t want tourists.
Kagoshima has the sand onsen along with Matcha. Guess both are great for tourist no?