I’m curious to hear if this rhymes with your recent experience there, Jason

My first experience with this flavor of tourism was in Marrakech, and seeing influencers hiring locals to serve as makeshift security to keep people out of their photos was deeply off putting.

But, as is often the case, take the time to find quality second tier destinations and you’ll have a lovely time.

It makes me think of climbing peaks in Colorado. Anything 14k feet or higher is a nightmare of crowds. Go to the 13998’ peak right next to Mt Famous, and you’ll be alone.

tech bros gotta tech bro :-)

I've had this experience in the last couple of years in Venice, in late October, tail end of the season. There was a Russian? (Slavic-speaking, at least) influencer monopolizing one whole side of the St. Mark's balcony for at least 30 min. Drones were involved. I hope her however many followers enjoyed it.

But! Then we moved on to Pomposa, Ravenna, Arezzo, and a Tuscan hill town. No influencers! Apparently the influencers aren't into stunning 5th century mosaics and church painting, or the founder of modern music notation. Or Tuscan hot springs.

Similar in northern Spain in August -- the influencers don't do Neandertals or medieval convents or pre-Romanesque churches (it's true I had to use Google Translate to live translate a tour at Atapuerca as there were no English tours, but that's on me, not them). And then we crossed to Portugal, and...instant Instagram tourist chaos in Porto and Lisbon (but not Tomar or Coimbra or Guimaraes or Óbidos). It was interesting, the contrast.

Still possible to do the travels without the influencers, but you have to get off the beaten path. (Seriously if you haven't been to Ravenna, go! I can't recommend it highly enough.)

We loved Japan. It was early 2017 and there were selfie sticks, for sure, but it wasn't as crazy. And many of the selfie sticks were being used by locals. (I know exactly where that Kyoto photo was shot. It was busy but not like that.) All of us want to go back. But I don't want a photo of Mount Fuji or whatever is de rigeur for the influencers.

As they mention in the post and the comments, Japan is a poor country with a large population (regularly neck-and-neck with Mexico for 10th place globally) and not surprisingly they also like to crowd metro areas at travel peaks and act like dopey tourists/'influenced'. The polyester kimono's in Kyoto are tacky but the yen dropped ~45% vs the dollar since covid, ~10% of which was in the last year - capsule toy vending machines are way more prevalent than arcades used to be. Not often, but I got rejected from establishments by being foreign-looking, just like age and sex and lots of other discrimination is not strictly illegal here (I particularly appreciate how little we notice/interact with politics). But I'm super lucky that I have family in the countryside and can participate in (internationally appreciated) fun things like the many bike touring routes and crafts (and cafe culture etc) to really understand and appreciate the full breadth of life here - do you go near the major transit and tourist hubs to find/experience nice things elsewhere? Or expect the best specimens of humanity there?

Oof. I'm headed to Tokyo to do fieldwork soon and some part of that will be filming (though not for social media). Will need to softly strategize how not to be disruptive.

Someone above mentioned Mexico, and this rhymes with our experience here in CDMX. The city is full of Americans (like me), often here for holiday or a bachelor party or to start a doomed fashion brand. In certain areas you hear just as much english as spanish on the street. Rental and home prices have gone way up (in some places 40% in last two years, iirc). Accordingly, there's been a backlash, as folks have probably seen in the news. Will be interesting to see what the response to overtourism is in Tokyo, and whether that rhymes, too.

I have found that if you go even slightly off the tourist track anywhere you see the real place, and it's less crowded. My first experience with this was living in the Haight, and needing to take Page instead of Haight to just get to the grocery store on a Saturday. One block, and it is a totally different vibe! This has been my experience in every city I've visited, including ones in Japan the only time I've been, which was late last year. I always try to stay in a locals neighborhood, and dip into the touristy places to see the sights and then retreat. It's less convenient, but the food and drink is generally better, and cheaper, and you walk through less selfies.

Taking just a few steps off the beaten tourist track can do wonders. I just spend two weeks in Japan and consciously made the choice to avoid the major tourist destinations and had a wonderful quiet trip. Transportation is so good there that it is easy to take a quick trip to any number of beautiful, interesting cities that most tourists have no interest in.

I've lived in Japan since 2008 and there's definitely been a lot of changes over that time. A couple years back we visited Tokyo and Shibuya Crossing ("the world's worst street crossing") was so packed with tourists oblivious to the world outside their camera screens that I had to physically shoulder-rush my way through tourists lining the curb, just so I could get out of the road. I felt no inclination to apologize.