Last month, it was announced the number of visitors to Kyoto in 2014 (including day trippers) topped 55 million people, a 7.8 percent increase over 2013. The total number of foreign visitors who spent at least one night was 1.83 million, a whopping 62 percent increase over 2013.
In addition, Travel + Leisure magazine named Kyoto the world's best city for the second year in a row. The magazine readers calls Kyoto the "quintessential Japanese experience," noting there are more than 2,000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, the Golden Pavilion and the Nishijin neighborhood for "kawaii (cute) artisan shops."
As someone who lived in Kyoto for nine years and returns quite often, I view the recent, rapid influx of tourists with mixed emotions. There is no doubt that, for mid-range tourists, the quality of shops, cafes, hotels and restaurants in the city is far better today than it was two decades ago. Higher-end tourists, as Travel + Leisure notes, now have the choice of staying in a traditional ryokan (as celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio do when they pass through) or a modern, four- or five-star hotel.