Pokemon GO event to be held in Kyoto Corona expansion, consideration of appearance location

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A regional real event of the smartphone game Pokemon GO that uses location information will be held in four cities around the world on the 22nd and Kyoto City is the only target in Japan. Many players from all over the country have visited the venues of past real events and expectations for tourism demand, which has fallen due to the corona disaster, are rising. On the other hand, the arrival of the third wave has been pointed out due to the rapid increase in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus nationwide, and Kyoto City will welcome the event with expectations and anxiety.

Pokemon GO is a game that captures and collects Pokemon that appear on the map on your smartphone screen. The map corresponds to the real world, and players can only find Pokemon by actually walking. It became a big boom all over the world, and distribution began in Japan in July 2016.

22nd in 4 cities around the world

The event name is Pokemon GO City Spotlight. This will be the first real event after the spread of the new covid-19 infection. According to the announcement by Niantic Co., Ltd., it will be held in Kyoto, Busan (Korea), Auckland (New Zealand), and Tainan (Taiwan) from 10 am to 6 pm on the 22nd. It is said that the four cities were selected in consideration of the infection status of the new covid-19.

Real events that cannot be attended without actually going to the site have a strong ability to attract customers and about 89,000 people who greatly exceeded expectations participated in the event held at Tottori Sand Dunes in November 2017, "traffic jams and There was a waiting line for the shuttle bus (Tottori Prefecture). The event in Yokohama in August 2017 attracted 2 million participants in 7 days.

Kyoto is one of the leading tourist cities in Japan. Demand for tourism is gradually returning due to the government's tourism support measures such as "GoTo Travel," but the occupancy rate of major hotels in the city in September remained at 33%, and the difficult situation continues. Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said, we welcome the city of Kyoto, which is engaged in safe, secure and sustainable tourism. We hope that all participants will enjoy the beautiful autumn of Kyoto together with Pokemon GO." Was issued.

On the other hand, the number of people infected with the new covid-19 is increasing again all over the country, and it is not uncommon for Kyoto Prefecture to have double-digit numbers of people infected per day. As the autumn leaves season begins and tourists are becoming more prominent on GoTo, there is concern that holding the event during the three consecutive holidays may lead to "denseness".

According to the official website of Pokemon GO, the target of this event is trainers (players) living in the city and those who do not live in Kyoto cannot participate. However, Pokemon GO does not have a function to confirm the address, and it seems that people who are in Kyoto during the time of the event can actually participate in the free part, and there is a possibility that people from all over the place will gather.

Search while maintaining social distance

In the announcement, Na emphasized that (players) will explore while maintaining social distance. In order to prevent the spread of infection, the city said that it had consulted with Na in advance so that the place where Pokemon appeared would not be biased to a specific place and the city executive said, I do not like it if I concentrate on a specific place. However, consideration has been given.

An executive of the department responsible for covid-19 countermeasures in the city said, there are no clusters (infectious disease groups) triggered by tourists in Kyoto City. After all, participants took basic preventive measures such as masks. It's all about being thorough. If you're feeling sick, don't overdo it, even if it's a valuable event.