Tourism Kanazawa launches website, ads on tourism etiquette

Ishikawa Prefecture and the city of Kanazawa are utilising social media to address overtourism, encouraging overseas visitors to respect local customs and minimise the inconvenience to residents. The campaign highlights issues that have frequently drawn complaints, including littering, taking photos without permission, eating while walking through busy streets, and failing to show up for restaurant reservations. Crowded public transport made worse by travellers with bulky luggage has also been a source of irritation. The ads now appear on smartphones set to foreign languages at Kanazawa Station and Komatsu Airport, linking to a site that explains local etiquette when tapped.

According to Ishikawa prefectural government's international tourism division, Kanazawa city had previously placed fliers at tourist information centres to promote proper manners. However, the prefecture and the city decided to send the messages more proactively by leveraging digital tools. The number of foreign visitors to the prefecture is increasing. Kenrokuen, a popular garden that is used as an indicator of foreign tourist numbers in Ishikawa Prefecture, saw 298,406 foreign visitors from January to June, a 15.8% year-on-year increase from the same period last year.

Click to expand...

While most of Japan's foreign tourists come from East Asia - making up about two-thirds of all visitors - Kanazawa presents a striking exception. This coastal city in Ishikawa Prefecture has managed to attract a completely different crowd.

Walk through the famous Kenrokuen gardens these days and you'll hear more English, French and German than Mandarin or Korean. Western tourists from Europe, North America and Australia have actually overtaken visitors from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong at this iconic spot.

What's drawing them? Kanazawa's walkable old quarters and authentic cultural offerings hit the mark for travellers wanting genuine Japanese experiences rather than just the usual tourist trail. Kohaku, a local tour company, is capitalising on this trend: they run workshops, in which visitors make sushi using fresh catch from Omicho Market, the place locals call their "kitchen." They also offer tea ceremonies and kintsugi classes, where people learn the art of mending broken pottery with gold and lacquer. Kohaku expects about 4,000 guests in 2025, up 60% from last year, with Western visitors making up 97% of participants. It's quite a turnaround for a country where Asian tourists usually dominate. Kohaku offers a shopping and sushi-making tour for 68,000 yen ($460) for two people.

The way participants engage with the tour varies by country, revealing distinct cultural preferences and behaviors, according to Kohaku President Shigehiko Yamada. Australians tend to enjoy lively exchanges with locals, while French visitors are often curious about the origins of what they are seeing, including traditional machiya townhouses and cuisine, Yamada said. Between January and July, Kenrokuen garden welcomed about 336,000 visitors. Europeans from five key markets: the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- together with North Americans and Australians -- made up 40.9% of the total, edging out the 40.3% share from East Asia's four major markets. Over the same period for all of Japan, East Asians accounted for 66% of arrivals, while those from the Western nations surveyed made up only 16% of the total, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Click to expand...

Among Europeans, Italians stand out. They made up 5.5% of all foreign overnight stays in Kanazawa in 2024 and ranked fifth overall.

Paywall alert: