by James Ruggia
Last updated: 5:30 PM ET, Mon January 12, 2015
PHOTO: The Kodaiji Temple was built in 1606 and remains a sacred center for Zen contemplation. (Courtesy of Kyoto tourism)
As Japanese tourism undergoes one of the most prosperous periods in its history, it's also undergoing changes from within as new destinations inside Japan are rising to challenge the most established attractions in the country. After Tokyo, Japan's primary gateway and capital, the top attraction is Kyoto, which has been hard at work to continue to enhance its appeal.
In 2014, Japan attracted a record number of tourists. The 13 millionth overseas visitor arrived at Tokyo's Narita Airport on Dec. 22. That's pretty impressive when you consider that in December, 2013, the airport was celebrating its 10 millionth arrival. U.S. visitation to Japan is also setting records. Some 818,000 Americans arrived in Japan from January through November 2014 for an increase of 11.9 percent. That number exceeded the total US visitors in the entire 2013.
In Kyoto, the city's mayor, Daisaku Kadokawa, is determined to surpass a record year for visitors to his city with another record year. In 2013, Kyoto attracted a record 51.62 million domestic and international tourists. As the Japan Times reported, some 1.13 million guests overnighted in the city's hotels and inns in 2013, surpassing the million mark for the first time and "more than doubling the figure from a decade earlier, when local hotels hosted only 450,000."
Kyoto, which was named "World's Best City" by Travel + Leisure in 2014, is an extremely powerful draw for western tourists. In 2013, 80 percent of Japan's tourists were from Asian countries, but nearly half of Kyoto's visitors hailed from North America, Oceania and Europe. The city moved to upgrade the tourism yield from overseas visitors by making a stronger foray into luxury travel by serving as the host city for the annual International Luxury Travel Market Japan since 2013 and adding such brands as Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton to its hotel offerings.
Last November, Kyoto opened an improved website, the Kyoto Official Travel Guide, aimed at foreign travelers. Updates to the site include a direct link to TripAdvisor, multimedia support and links to private businesses.
Kyoto will also benefit from the coming of the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) service to the region of Hokuriku. The service begins in March, but in the next few years it will extend to create a new rail tourism corridor connecting Tokyo to western Japan including Kyoto and Osaka.
Kyoto, the traditional home of Japan's emperors, became the capital of Japan in the year 794. In 1590, the militarist Shoguns became the real power and they ruled Japan from Edo or modern Tokyo. The emperor continues to make his home in Kyoto, a fact that maintains the city's role as the spiritual locus of the country.
UNESCO has designated some 17 different sites in Kyoto as World Heritage sites, that's more than most countries can claim. Among the approximately 2,000 temples and shrines, lie about 20 percent of Japan's listed National Treasures and about 14 percent of its listed Important Cultural Assets.
Kyoto is known as the preeminent destination to experience the Japanese fascination with the seasons. The rites of "koyo" or fall foliage viewing have poignant spiritual power for a people who see in the changes of the seasons analogies to change as a perpetual dynamic force in Zen Buddhism. Such hotels as the Ritz-Carlton, feature special koyo packages in November and early December.
Destination Asia offers a cycling program to get more intimate with the city. It includes a guided tour of temples such as Kinkaku-ji and Kiyomizu-dera and an exploration of the back streets of Miyagawacho and Gion geisha districts on bicycles. The route follows the Shirakawa canal and the Kamogawa River with plenty of stops including the Imperial Palace Park and its gardens.
The American market represents a real opportunity for Kyoto travel marketing as it overcomes their biggest challenge, seasonality. Fall and spring are the most crowded times of year in Kyoto because that's when the gardens are most dramatic in their seasonal changes. Most Americans however arrive in Kyoto during summer. There are no dull times in Kyoto's gardens as the monks that designed them managed to express the essence of every season. Winter is also beautiful.
As Japan heads towards the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) will likely put more emphasis on Japan's "Beyond Tokyo" destinations as the capital will be generating plenty of promotional muscle just off the build up to the Games. Japan's government has challenged the JNTO with a goal of 20 million annual visitors from overseas, by the time the Olympics rolls around. In Kyoto, the mayor has already established programs at elementary and junior high schools to sharpen the knowledge of students on such traditions as tea ceremony, flower arranging and kimonos.
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