Tourism Hokkaido town to introduce tax for overtourism

The small agricultural town of Biei, with a population of around 9,300, faces facing challenges of overtourism. To manage the influx of 2 million annual visitors, the city plans to introduce Hokkaido's first new tax. Biei, known for its picturesque landscapes of rolling hills, fields, and towering trees, primarily relies on agriculture, mainly wheat and potato cultivation. However, its popularity has skyrocketed since 2012, when Apple featured a photo of Shirogane Blue Pond as a desktop wallpaper.

This man-made reservoir, with its striking blue colour caused by aluminium deposits and surrounded by dead larch trees, has become a significant tourist attraction. While it has brought economic benefits, it has also strained the town's infrastructure and resources.

On one weekday in September, the town-run paid parking lot near the pond was crowded with large sightseeing buses and cars. Most of the tourists were from overseas, including South Korea and Taiwan. So many vehicles arrived that a traffic jam formed at the mechanical toll gate to the parking area. He said that town employees were quickly deployed to collect the fees to untangle the snarl manually. The town has relocated electricity poles at scenic sites to prevent them from being in tourists' pictures. Signs were installed to show the locations for ideal photo shoots. Biei also provides an online service showing real-time congestion levels.

Click to expand...

[it does what it wants to do] The sightseeing spot where I am prohibited from swimming is "a blue pond", and a foreigner swims.
I photograph an impermissibility drone and spoil a fantastic atmosphere.
Hokkaido
A popular sightseeing spot "blue pond" of Hokkaido, Biei-cho.
Therefore an emergency act was photographed.

The man that it is thought to be a foreigner in the 20s and 30s to have been in the middle of the pond where I am prohibited from swimming.

When I swim by the crawl and do a peace sign, it does what it wants to do.
On the happy head, a drone flew.
According to the town, it is said that this drone was impermissibility.

It is 16th that I had an annoying act.
The man who photographed it "take it, and say that is beauty, and the photograph is バシャン somewhere, too! There was a sound called this, and was surprised; "the beginning thought whether there was a creature. I say, it was an emergency person if I consider it what it is.

When the man who swam has it for approximately ten minutes, I go on the land, and it is said that I talked with the person who steered a drone.

A photographer is or "should call the police" "(as for people of the circumference); or when "is impossible." There is what a person appears in by all means, and is a feeling "unpleasant" everybody loathsomeness. When I do not usually enter. I talk with the place that I can judge in common-sense terms.

The blue pond where the cobalt blue is also called "biAbe roux."

"You must do such a nuisance act from neither the Japanese who came for an act to damage the fantastic atmosphere that the Japanese larch which stood blighted brings on nor the overseas tourist. It seems to be bad for the health of the person. May be personal carelessness, but is a famous sightseeing spot, and think that it is important to stop beforehand so that an accident does not happen globally; such as of the anger some said.

The tourist who visits Biei-cho anything and 250 times of the population of about 2.38 million people a year and the town or more.

A traffic jam or manner violation by the overtourism became the problem, and expenses to manage maintenance and the way of facilities increased.

The height when it is considered for admission tax as measures that this nuisance act happened.

When the town entered the specific place as part of measures in the spot, warning spread and installed the AI camera which an image had been sent to in the government office.

Because a camera does not operate this time, I consider it to have had possibilities to enter the pond at the place not to detect.

Biei-cho business and industry sightseeing interchange section, Koki Naruse, assistant section manager, depending on "a place, there is a deep place so that there is not a foot. There may be the disease-causing germs including the echinococcus. As it was a very dangerous act, I told, I want you certainly to stop it.