Japan’s ancient temples bid for foreign tourists as Japanese lose interest

[CopyBoy]

EIHEIJI, Japan (Reuters) – Deep in a forest near Japan’s western shore, a 13th century Buddhist temple where Steve Jobs once dreamed of becoming a Zen monk has teamed up with a Tokyo skyscraper builder to seek the commercial enlightenment of foreign tourist dollars.

As a weak yen fuels record tourism, Eiheiji temple, local authorities and Mori Building Co, behind some of Tokyo’s glitziest retail palaces, plan to redevelop the site including an $11 million hotel nearby. From there, a new path will be built leading visitors to the spartan site that intrigued the Apple Inc guru.

Japan’s temples have long been business and tech-savvy, offering lucrative services like funerals while courting domestic tourists – a recent Eiheiji exhibition featured video from a drone operated by a monk. But compared to other parts of the world, religious sites outside centres like Kyoto have been slow to target mass foreign tourism.

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[cjforJesus]

religionnews.com/2016/01/01/japans-ancient-temples-bid-for-foreign-tourists-as-japanese-lose-interest/?utm_content=buffer91127&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=bufferforbiz

Thanks for the article,Copy Boy. It was interesting reading and stressed how important tourism is to the economy of many countrys.