ON A sunny day in May it is not hard to see why the Japanese island of Ishigaki, some 2,000km from the capital, Tokyo, is becoming a tourist magnet. This year the crystal-watered, coral-reefed island was named the world’s hottest destination by TripAdvisor, a travel website. It is already popular with Asians from nearby Taiwan and Hong Kong, and increasingly with Westerners looking for a counterpoint to temple-touring and tea ceremonies in Kyoto. Last year 1.4m foreign and local tourists visited, twice the number in 2013, when a new airport opened.
But there is trouble in paradise. Karry Kanko, a bus company, has new vehicles sitting idle for want of drivers. It has already cut some routes. Taxis are hard to find. At Art Hotel the manager sometimes doubles as a chamber maid. Guests are offered a discount to forgo the daily cleaning of their rooms, to reduce staffing needs. “We are struggling,” admits Yoshiharu Takamine, who stepped down as head of the local tourist-information centre...Continue reading
from Asia https://ift.tt/2JuR0lt
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment