When I visited the Great Buddha in Kamakura a couple of years ago, there were dozens of foreign tourists laying down, sitting, or posing on or next to the statue in a way that our native Japanese friend remarked how disrespectful they were being. I don't think it would've been as bad before smartphones and influencer/YouTube culture, but I can't really say.
It’s funny how tourism hasn’t changed for over 2000 years. Greek tourists of antiquity would write graffiti letting others know they were there and leave reviews on Egyptian tombs.
Yes, unfortunately, there are loads of people who look to someone like Logan Paul as someone to emulate and attempt to film their own wacky antics for online popularity contests, at the expense of ordinary folk.
It’s more than that. People think there is a financial payoff if they win the influencer game.
And when they do make income, their taxable income is likely not going to these countries which they are profiting off of. I guess it’s a sort of negative externality.
I generally agree with the comment upthread that it's as much about accessibility as the influencer angle. Although I might not get the best rate (and it is around the holidays) I could basically book a week in Tokyo without any assistance a few days from now if I wanted to.
That said, there is an influencer angle and probably some reasonable number of younger people who see a few people becoming YouTube or TikTok stars and thinking there's a chance they could become one of them.
