Zero Zen

A great exchange rate, ChatGPT, and kimono-wearing bros have turned Kyoto into the loveliest tourist trap on earth.

Six years ago, New York magazine sent me to Tulum, Mexico, to figure out how a paradise had been transformed by greed, gringos, diesel fuel, drugs, shamans, seaweeds, and a disco ball, among other things. I’m proud of the article that came out of that—Who Killed Tulum?—but am also completely aware that the most memorable thing about it is the lead image that accompanied the story:

Earlier this year, as part of the magazine’s new Travel Issue—about travel issues, and why vacationing has become so much work—I went to Kyoto, which has become similarly overwhelmed by tourism. In certain respects, the story of Kyoto is the same as the story of Tulum: too many people descending on a place ill-equipped to handle them. In other ways, it is different and even more sobering. The post-Covid travel boom is not only overwhelming tiny beautiful places like Tulum, but also our world’s great cities—Venice, Barcelona, even Paris, where the Louvre shut down for a day earlier this month when the crowds became too big for the staff to handle. Kyoto may be the most emblematic of all, and I’m not surprised the best art department in the business found another perfect photo to sum up this story, too:

I hope you enjoy the piece, which is in the new issue of the magazine out today, and I’m available to tell you where to go and not to go.