Security guards employed to keep unruly tourists in line

Not everyone in Japan is delighted by the current tourism boom.

On a recent visit to Kanazawa I saw several restaurants with signs saying they would not serve anyone who didn't speak Japanese.

Several shops displayed blatantly racist signs warning foreigners they were not welcome (image above). 

   
And now a small town in Japan has taken drastic measures and hired a team of security guards to manage badly behaved tourists, news portal Travel Mole reported.

Otaru, a small port town on Hokkaido island has been inundated by crowds of tourists with some of them being a nuisance to locals.

The visitors have been blocking roads and pavements to scramble for photos at Instagram hotspot Funami-zaka, a steep street offering scenic views of the port and ocean.

It was a location for the 1995 Japanese film Love Letter and the 2015 Chinese movie Cities in Love, which have sparked interest in the town.

A Chinese woman was recently killed by a train in the town while reportedly distracted by taking photos.

Local residents have complained about large crowds of tourists blocking roads and some trespassing on private property to get a better vantage point to take photos.

“The road is lined with houses and has heavy traffic," a city official told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

"Tourists standing on the street or walking side by side often make it impossible for vehicles to pass. The impact on residents has been significant.”

A record 36.7 million people visited Japan last year.

Several areas have taken action against over-tourism issues in Kyoto, Fujikawaguchiko near Mount Fujim and the spa town of Ginzan Onsen.

Images: Winsor Dobbin and Hokkaido Tourism 

Bali wants to lock out "trashy" tourists

 

Authorities in Bali have had enough of badly behaved visitors. 

Provincial leaders are debating whether to increase the price of the recently introduced Bali Tourism Tax Levy to keep out the riff raff, the Bali Sun reports.

The tax was introduced in February and requires all international holidaymakers and tourists to pay 

IDR 150,000 to help preserve culture and nature in Bali and level up the tourism infrastructure on the island. But collection of the levy has been haphazard at best.

In light of an apparent rise in the number of foreigners behaving badly in Bali, leaders on the island have re-started conversations about how best to deter unruly foreigners and attract more high-quality visitors to the province.

One method that has been tabled this week by tourism leaders is to hugely increase the tourism tax fee.

Leaders and stakeholders from the tourism sector are calling for a massive hike to the fee, and are arguing for the tax to be raised from IDR 150,000 to IDR 500,000 and in some cases IDR 800,000, which is around $US50.

Speaking to reporters, Chairman of Commission II of the Bali Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD), Ida Gede Komang Kresna Budi, said he wants to see the fee increased to the equivalent of $US50. 

Budi told reporters: “We want people who are of higher quality to come. We are trying to consult with the police to form a tourism police that specifically handles tourism…That is the basis for us wanting to make changes to the revision of the regional tourism levy regulation.”

He said he does not want tourists coming to Bali feeling like they can brazenly violate the law and disrespect local culture and norms.

“There is this problem because usually, those who act up are members of the bottom [low-spending tourists]," he said. "This must be anticipated.”

He also accepted that, at present, the way in which the Bali Tourism Tax Levy is being promoted and operated for tourists is not as easy as it should be.

“Currently, we cannot find a suitable place at the airport due to a lack of coordination with the airport and Immigration as a supporting stakeholder," he said. "We hope that with coordination from all parties, everything can be maximized.”

Budi’s motion has been seconded by tourism expert Taufan Rahmadi, who says that a big hike in the Bali Tourism Tax Levy would be an essential strategic step to help improve the quality of tourism on the island.

Rahmadi told reporters: “Revenue from this tariff can be allocated to environmental conservation, infrastructure development, and improving tourist services. We can learn from Bhutan, which has successfully used high tariffs to fund environmental and cultural preservation efforts.

“Venice, Italy, has succeeded in reducing crowds by imposing entry fees. Bali can implement a similar policy to maintain a balance between the number of tourists and environmental capacity and infrastructure.”

When tourists cannot behave themselves

Just like Venice and Machu Picchu in Peru, the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto has had enough of badly behaved tourists.

Visitors will be banned from entering private alleys in Kyoto's famous geisha district, as the ancient city tackles over-tourism, The Japan Times reported.

Kyoto residents have long expressed frustration with tourists, especially in the city's Gion district, home to teahouses where geiko - as geisha are locally known - and their young maiko apprentices, perform their duties.

In December, a Gion district council comprised of residents urged the city of Kyoto to tackle the issue, saying their neighbourhood "is not a theme park".

One member previously told Japanese media about an instance of a maiko's kimono being torn and another who had a cigarette butt put in her collar.

Overcrowding and ‘unruly’ behaviour, including tourists eager to get selfies with geishas, are at the heart of the problem.

“We don’t want to do this, but we’re desperate,” local council member Isokazu Ota said.

“We are going to put up signs in April that tell tourists to stay out of our private streets.”

The rest of this captivating city of many temples welcomes tourists. See https://kyoto.travel/en/ for suggestions, 

When flying brings out the worst in people

People being arseholes in the air is nothing new.

From drunk idiots on their way back from Bali to this week's dickhead who was charged after a Malaysia Airlines flight was forced to turn back to Sydney when he allegedly made bomb threats to people on board.

The pilot decided to turn the plane around while it was over north-west NSW after the passenger allegedly began yelling, making references to Islam and gesturing at a backpack worn on his chest.

Flyers had to spend three hours on the tarmac before the combined might of the Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales Police decided it was safe to come on board and arrest the man.

But the problems with many flying fwits are often less frightening but still annoying.

There are the dim bulbs who smile benignly while their offspring repeatedly kick the back of the seat in front of them. There are the morons who bring half their bodyweight on board as "hand luggage".

And now there is a debate about passengers who want to let light into the cabin while others are trying to sleep. It is a big talking point, apparently, among viewers of that paragon of intelligent discussion TikTok.

Apparently the kind and generous folk from Generation Z believe it’s acceptable to pull their window shutter up and let light stream in when other people are trying to snooze.

On TikTok, a post from a US flyer criticised a passenger for keeping the window shade open, saying it was selfish.

A number of younger travellers then showed their caring, sharing nature by posting messages including “if you want to sleep, stay one more night in the hotel”, and “I paid for it, I will absolutely leave it open”.

They are among us.

New Bali taskforce to crack down on "naughty" tourists

If you are planning to visit Bali and misbehave then be warned that local residents are being encouraged to dob you in to the authorities.

And if you are a budget traveller with mischief in mind then you may face deportation.

Immigration officials this week launched a new hotline for concerned citizens to report tourists who have been behaving badly on the island, the Bali Sun newspaper reported.

The move came as the Director General of Immigration for Indonesia also launched a new task force dedicated to eliminating disrespectful and illegal behaviour by foreigners.

Speaking to reporters at the launch of the new Bali Becik Task Force, Director General of Immigration Silmy Karim explained how the new hotline will work and why it is needed.

He explained: “We, from the Bali Becik Task Force, invite the people of Bali to report foreigners. Community participation is certainly very much needed in supervising and taking action against unruly tourists.”

Karim said the Bali Becik Task Force will be cracking down on law breaking foreigners in Bali from now until the end of the year.

The Bali Becik Task Force is currently comprised of a team of 25 officers who will be coordinating the tourist control missions in partnership with the immigration offices, police forces, and local community groups.

The newspaper predicted several deportations as a result of the implementation of the force.

Becik means ‘good’ or ‘well’ in the Balinese language.

“As the name implies, the Bali Becik Task Force aims for a safer Bali…with this task force, I hope Bali Becik can really come true,” said Karim.

“The formation of the Bali Becik Task Force is due to the rise of tourists who misbehave. So, in the future, it can minimise the actions of naughty tourists in Bali.

“The main problem regarding foreigners in Bali is the large number of foreign tourists with low spending who often make trouble.”


He described them as "thin-pocketed tourists.”

Image: Jimbaran Beach, Winsor Dobbin

More dickheads are flying than ever before

There was a big increase in unruly airline passenger incidents involving physical abuse last year.

While still relatively rare, the rate jumped by 61% in 2022, the International Air Transport Association says.

IATA released new analysis showing there was one non-violent unruly incident reported every 568 flights in 2022, up from one per 835 flights in 2021.

The most common causes were non-compliance, verbal abuse and intoxication.

Physical abuse incidents occurred once every 17,200 flights.

“The increasing trend of unruly passenger incidents is worrying," said Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Deputy Director General.

 "Passengers and crew are entitled to a safe and hassle-free experience. 

“There is no excuse for not following the instructions of the crew.”

Non-compliance incidents initially fell after mask mandates were removed on most flights, Travel Mole reported.

The frequency began to rise again throughout 2022, however, and ended the year 37% up on 2021.

The most common examples of non-compliance were smoking or vaping in the cabin or toilets, failure to fasten seatbelts and passengers drinking their own alcohol on board.

IATA called on governments to ensure there is the necessary legal mechanism to prosecute unruly passengers.

“The vast majority of intoxication incidents occur from alcohol consumed prior to the flight,” it said.

“The support of airport bars and restaurants to ensure responsible consumption is particularly important.

“We all have a responsibility to behave with respect for other passengers and the crew.”

Image: Erica Vigilante, Scop.io 

Italy awash with imbecile tourists

Italy seems to attract more than its fair share of nutty tourists.

Regular readers will recall the American idiot who was fined €500 for driving over the pedestrians-only centuries-old Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence.

Then there was the tourist who had to be rescued after falling into the crater of Mount Vesuvius when taking a photo. Also American.

Last year we had a pair of tourists who were fined and briefly banned from Rome’s historic city centre after damaging the city’s historic Spanish Steps with electric scooters. Also Americans.

Then there were the two people seen riding eFoils, or electric surfboards, along the Grand Canal in Venice. This pair were Australians and were described as "imbeciles" by the Venice mayor.

Image: Twitter / @LuigiBrugnaro

And now authorities in Venice are searching for a "cretin" who jumped from a three-storey building into a canal. (image above)

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called the man shown in a video an "idiot: and promised to give him a "certificate of stupidity and a lot of kicks".

Officials say the man - and his companion who filmed the stunt - will be arrested if located. 

The man was wearing only boxer shorts when jumping into the canal.

“We are trying to identify him,” Brugnaro said. “He risked his life in that jump, but he is also a delinquent."

Image: Venice by Agata Bertolini, Scop.io

Amsterdam wants to scare away dope smoking tourists

The last time I visited Amsterdam there was fellow running around the streets menacing people with a machete.

He was clearly high on a substance a little stronger than cannabis.

But the good people of Amsterdam council are now apparently worried about marijuana tourism.

They are to launch a "stay away" campaign in the northern spring targeting tourists travelling to the capital for drugs, alcohol and sex purposes.

Which are, of course, three of Amsterdam's major tourism drawcards, whether the good local burghers like it or not.

The city's mayor is hoping to curb crime by banning smoking marijuana outdoors from mid-May.

Good luck with that.

Apparently, residents in the city centre have complained that tourist-fuelled nightlife noise has made the city unbearable.

The Dutch capital has long been known for its liberal attitude to drug use and sex work but will ban the smoking of cannabis on the streets of its red-light district, city authorities.

The ban, which will come into effect in mid-May, is seeking to tackle crime and anti-social behavior to improve the quality of life for the area's residents.

Amsterdam is a popular tourist hotspot and its marijuana cafes as well as its brothels and strip clubs draw in millions of visitors every year.

The real problem is not a marijuana smoking - it is an overabundance of tourists in cities that are relatively small.

Venice suffers from similar problems, as does Prague - neither of which are dens of drug smoking mania. Rome, too, and Dubrovnik.

What has happened in these cities - and many others - is that they have promoted themselves to tourists, and then discovered they lack the necessary infrastructure for the masses.

"Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets," Amsterdam city fathers and mothers said in a statement.

"Tourists also attract street dealers, who in turn cause crime and insecurity," it added.

But therein lies a problem. 

Tourists are highly unlikely to flock to Amsterdam for the local cuisine, so when businesses start losing money my bet is that dope smokers will be welcomed back with open arms.

Travel alert: Watch out for in-flight urinators

Plenty of people behave badly when flying but an Air India passenger hit a new low when he urinated on an elderly woman.

In business class.

Air India has said it will review its onboard alcohol policy after the drunk passenger caused outrage.

CEO Campbell Wilson tweeted an apology after a "heavily inebriated" man urinated on a woman in business class, The Hindu newspaper reported.

“Air India acknowledges that it could have handled this better,” he said.

Amazingly, the man was only banned from flying on Air India for 30 days. Oops. Fail.

Indian media reported the man was a senior bank executive who has since been fired.

A police report was filed and the alleged perpetrator was arrested over the weekend and is being held for 14 days in custody, The Hindu reported..

The incident happened on a flight from New York to Delhi in November 26.

Wilson said the airline was taking steps to prevent future such incidents, including a review of its policy on serving alcohol and a better internal communication system for crew to lodge reports before landing.

The CEO also said that the victim had been receiving "ongoing assistance" from the airline after it received the complaint on November 27. Her tickets were refunded and he had met with her and her family on four occasions.

Both the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Delhi Police are probing Air India for its failure to handover the errant passenger to security forces and report the incident when it happened.

Remarkably, Air India reported a second similar incident last month when a male passenger urinated on a vacant seat and the blanket of another passenger on a flight between Paris and New Delhi in December.

A plague of passengers behaving badly

It is, apparently, the season for flying nutters 

In late January, a United Airlines flight from New York to Tel Aviv had to return to the US after two imbeciles moved themselves from their economy class seats to empty ones in business class and then refused to move. 

The enitled Israeli passengers refused to provide proof they had been allocated seats in business class. 

The pair decided to upgrade themselves on the half-empty flight, Israeli media reported. 

Flight attendants asked the dumb duo for proof that they were sitting in their assigned seats, The pair objected and the pilot then turned back to Newark Liberty International Airport. 

United Airlines provided passengers with meal vouchers, hotels, and alternative flights to Tel Aviv after the disruption. 

The same week, an American Airlines passenger who refused to wear her face mask forced a flight to London from Miami to divert back to Florida roughly an hour into the journey.

Meanwhile, a man charged with groping a flight attendant has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Enio Socorro Zayas was sentenced in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida, court documents show.

He was indicted after an incident on August 6 last year on board an American Airlines flight from Cancun in Mexico to Miami International Airport.

According to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, a flight attendant, believing Zayas was asleep, placed a snack package on his lap.

When she turned away, the flight attendant "felt a hand grip the bottom of her thigh and move upwards towards the lower portion of her buttocks before rubbing firmly from side to side," the affidavit read.

Zayas pleaded guilty to assault in October.

Disruptive passenger behaviour has been a serious problem during the pandemic. 

Nearly 6,000 reports of unruly behaviour were reported in 2021, according to the Federal Aviation Administration - and that is for incidents on US carriers only. 

Image: Erica Vigilante, scop.io

Soccer player became "the airline passenger from hell"

We all hope and pray each time we board a flight that we do not get seated anywhere near the passenger from hell. 

Every now and then there is a media report about someone behaving bizarrely on a plane - fortunately it does not happen too often. 

Earlier this month, however, an Irishman allegedly went beserk on a flight between Dublin and New York, pulling down his pants and baring his buttocks at crew and passengers, hurling a drink can at a fellow traveller and putting his own cap on the captain’s head.

Shane McInerney was in court this week charged with refusing to wear a mask on a Delta flight and several other offences, Global Travel Media reported. 

He allegedly put his cap on the captain’s head, held a fist to his face and told him, “Don’t touch me.” The captain was on a rest break at the time and was in the cabin.

The criminal complaint said “at least one passenger” had found the Irishman “scary” and flight crew considered diverting the plane to a nearby airport to hand McInerney over to airport security.

McInerney’s flight from Ireland to New York was the first leg of a trip to Florida to begin a job at a soccer academy in the state, British media reported.

He was admitted to hospital for medical and psychological evaluation after the flight landed, prosecutors said. 

He could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $US250,000.

McInerney played for several lower league teams during his career, including a stint with Magpies Crusaders in Mackay, Australia. He also signed for Dandenong Thunder in Victoria.  

When you are rich and famous can you behave like a fool?

It is often said that when you are rich and famous you can get away with just about anything. 

Meet the airline passenger from hell: professional golfer Thorbjorn Oleson. 

Getting drunk and disorderly on a flight; grabbing a woman passenger by the breast; urinating on a fellow passenger in first class? 

All totally cool, a jury in Britain found this week. 

Ryder Cup winner Olesen wept in court and said he wants to focus on his golf after he was cleared of all charges in London court. 

You see, none of the outrages were actually his fault. 

It wasn't his fault he had too much to drink; not his fault he took prescription-only sleeping pills bought on a “dodgy website”. 

Olesen was on the eight-hour flight from Nashville to London in 2019 when the incidents happened, a trial at Aldersgate House Nightingale Court in central London was told. 

He had drunk beer, red wine, vodka and Champagne before take-off, ran around the cabin “like a little boy”, got trapped in the toilet and became verbally abusive to cabin crew. 

Witnesses said he pushed a British Airways worker; kissed the male cabin service director's hand and nuzzled his face into a woman’s neck before grabbing her breast. 

Olesen then cried before falling asleep, but later got up and urinated on the seat of a fellow first-class passenger. 

But the court heard Olesen was acting as an "automaton" and not in control of his body. 

"His conduct was not voluntary, that is the essence of automatism," his barrister Trevor Burke QC told the jury. 

Olesen was acquitted on Wednesday of sexual assault, assault by beating and being drunk on an aircraft after the jury deliberated for less than an hour following a three-day trial.

All cool then. But if you are I behaved in the same way, would there be a similar verdict? You decide.