This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Overtourism has become a growing concern in popular tourist destinations, where large numbers of visitors can put pressure on local communities and attractions. However, not all destinations face the same challenges.
While busy city centers may struggle to manage crowds, less-visited suburban areas often face the opposite problem: attracting enough visitors. As tourism develops in these areas, an important question arises: Could places that currently receive relatively few visitors face new pressures as tourism grows? In a recent study published online on Sept. 29, 2026, in the International Journal of Tourism Cities, senior assistant professor Sho Shimoyamada from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University in Japan studied how tourism practitioners in suburban Tokyo perceived the risk of overtourism and whether their assessments aligned with visitor trends.
The research was partly inspired by an unexpected experience Shimoyamada had after returning to central Tokyo in 2017. He was woken by a late-night disturbance at a neighboring house where tourists were apparently having a party. As Shimoyamada recalls, "At the time, 'overtourism' was not yet widely recognized in Japan, but the incident made me realize that tourism could affect communities in unexpected ways." To investigate this, Shimoyamada interviewed 13 tourism practitioners involved in a local tourism project in suburban Tokyo.
He also analyzed visitor numbers at eight attractions in the area for the fiscal years 2019 to 2021. Despite an overall downward trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visitors to a small Japanese garden increased significantly. By comparing these records with the practitioners' views, Shimoyamada explored whether local assessments reflected the changes seen in visitor numbers.
The interviews revealed that practitioners generally regarded undertourism as a persistent concern and considered overtourism unlikely in their area. Their views were shaped by their familiarity with the local community and their experience of how the area compared with popular destinations in central Tokyo. However, visitor records from the Japanese garden showed that its visitor numbers rose by 27.2% from 2019 to 2020.
Although numbers fell slightly the following year, they remained higher than in 2019. The increase occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many attractions experienced a decline in visitors. The garden's staff suggested that a television program featuring it as a peaceful urban oasis may have contributed to its unexpected popularity.
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