The city of Beppu in western Japan is famed for its hot springs, with hotels and resorts competing to attract tourists to an area renowned for sights like the “Hells of Beppu,” a series of colored and super-hot natural pools. As the numbers of Japanese visiting the resorts plateaus, local and international hotel chains are expanding to target the boom …

“The gringos are coming!” Outsiders were afraid to venture in before, but since Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s megahit, tourists from all over the world are descending on the narrow streets that wind among La Perla’s brightly coloured houses. “Despacito?” they inquire. And the barrio’s residents obligingly point out the locations where the video was filmed: the rocks facing the …