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Kyoto conundrum: More hotels than households exist in ancient capital

While moderate touristification can bring economic benefits to cities, overtourism has adverse social effects on residents and visitors. To prevent this, it is necessary to understand the disruptive balance between tourist accommodations and residential housing.

Junior Associate Professor Haruka Kato investigated the spatial patterns and geographic characteristics of tourism-accommodation hotspots in proximity to tourist locations in Kyoto, one of the most famous tourist cities in the world. The findings were in Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights.

In this study, the tourism-accommodation intensity index was calculated using the ratio of the number of accommodation rooms to that of households.

The results revealed that tourism-accommodation intensity hotspots emerged across six neighborhood-units in the periphery of the historical city center's southeastern area. The hotspots indicate areas with a disrupted balance between the number of residences and accommodations.

They emerged when the threshold tourism-accommodation intensity score reached 1.0, indicating that the number of rooms had exceeded that of households in these areas. Additionally, this study revealed that tourism-accommodation intensity hotspots were associated with proximity to transportation hubs. This result means that neighborhood-units closer to main stations are more likely to have tourism-accommodation intensity hotspots.

"These findings support the need for effective zoning policies and indicate that the Kyoto municipal government should develop zoning regulation planning for neighborhood units close to the historical center's main stations," said Dr. Kato.