Hong Kong
CNN
—
Many travelers associate tourist information centers with maps and help finding a nearby public bathroom.
But Tammy Mermelstein counts her visits to tourist info booths as some of the highlights of her recent holiday in Japan.
The Houston-based mom of two spent more than a year planning her family’s three-week trip to Japan. Though she came back with some special souvenirs — like scraps from a kimono found in a flea market and turned into wall art — she loves showing off the book of stamps she collected from traveler information centers and other tourist attractions around the country.
In some parts of Europe, the tourist information booth is becoming a thing of the past.
Paris said adieu to its last remaining tourist information center, next to the Eiffel Tower, in January. Scotland has announced that all of its will shut by the end of 2025.
Tourism officials in both destinations cited social media and widespread access to smartphones as a reason for shutting down physical offices. Both tourism bodies have switched to a “digital first” model, shifting their focus to Instagram and TikTok as well as setting up dedicated WhatsApp channels for travelers who have specific questions.
But while some industry insiders are already writing obituaries for in-person tourist support centers, destinations around Asia are actually increasing the number of traveler help desks.
Xiang Li, director of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that Asia’s tourist information centers are thriving because of the different mindsets of travelers in the region.
“Asian tourists generally value structured guidance and interpersonal explanations,” he tells CNN Travel. “Many of these travelers are less experienced with international travel and have language barriers, making face-to-face interactions and assistance particularly important to them.
“In contrast, European tourists are more accustomed to self-guided experiences, often utilizing a variety of online and offline tools, including apps and printed materials.”
South Korea had about 300 tourist information centers in 2015. Now, there are 638.
That number includes employees called “Moving Tourist Info Centers,” who stand around on the street in busy neighborhoods like Seoul’s Myeongdong — home to myriad shops for skincare products and Instagrammable cafes — to field questions.
These staffers wear bright red shirts and cowboy hats and can speak Chinese, Japanese or English.
“Visitor centers in Asia prioritize interaction and service as their most important aspects, aiming to meet the needs of tourists within a collectivist culture,” says Xiang. “In contrast, European visitor centers focus on information and education as their primary functions, catering to tourists in a context that emphasizes individual attention.”
And South Korea isn’t the only Asian country where tourist information centers are booming.
Japan opened 250 more between 2018 and 2024, citing overtourism as well as the need to address travelers in more languages. The government recently stated a goal of reaching 60 million tourists per year by 2030.
Beyond translation and basic questions about how to find the closest public bathroom, Japan’s tourist support centers are also attractions in their own right. Each center in Japan has its own unique stamp, called an eki sutanpu in Japanese.
Travelers who collect the stamps in their tourist passports will go out of their way to stop by an information booth, even if they don’t need help finding anything. These stamps are free souvenirs that pay homage to Japan’s culture of art, with travel Youtubers and Tiktokers even comparing notes on which ones are the prettiest or hardest to find.
In addition to tourist information booths, these stamps are also available at major tourist attractions like temples and lookout points, plus each JR Railway train station.
This collecting craze is called “stamp rallying” in English.
Thai entrepreneur Patrick Pakanan says he initially founded the StampQuest app for his wife, a longtime rally-er.
Pakanan spent part of his childhood in Japan and speaks the language fluently, but he never misses a chance to stop into a tourist information center.
“It’s good to start to have a conversation with the local people, too, like what to eat, what is famous here, maybe visit a store that they recommend,” he says.
“They’ve lived here all their lives, and they really want to help you understand their community.”
Mermelstein, the Houston mom, agrees. Although she visited tourist info booths to get her stamps and ask for advice, her family ended up spending as much time in them as they would a museum. In one, she says, a staffer showed her daughters how to write their names in Japanese; in another, a woman brought out kimonos for her girls to wear and took photos of them. Some centers have dedicated play areas for younger kids.
Even though Pakanan doesn’t collect stamps himself, he heads straight to a tourist information office whenever he visits a new region of Japan.
“Wherever you go scuba diving, you have to have a dive master, right? Well, this is the local dive master.”
Editor’s Note: CNN’s Gawon Bae and Chris Lau contributed reporting.
