The mayor of the real life island of Tsushima doesn’t think making Ghost of Tsushima‘s lead developers tourism ambassadors is enough. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Hiroki Hitakatsu has said that he would “really like to appoint all of Sucker Punch Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and game users who were involved in the work as tourism ambassadors.”
As previously reported, the award-winning game has “attracted more attention to Tsushima from all over the world than any other time in history.” Such has been the response from fans that Hitakatsu can’t wait for travel restrictions to be lifted so that he can invite Ghost of Tsushima‘s developers over to “make them love Tsushima even more.”
Received from Tsushima. #GhostOfTsushima pic.twitter.com/bqU2eAZvcm
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) March 12, 2021
Sony and the remote island have already struck a partnership to promote tourism, but unfortunately, Covid-19 has thrown a spanner in the works.
“Sucker Punch and SIE have considered that because Tsushima is such a remote island, that there are various limitations with medical facility availability, and for those reasons, we all decided to refrain from promoting visitors to come to the island,” Hitakatsu continued. “However, in response to the explosive hit of this work, we heard voices from users from all over the world who wanted to know more about Tsushima, so we proceeded with talks with Sucker Punch Productions and SIE, and we were thinking about what we could do during this time when travel to Japan is restricted.”
Last year, Ghost of Tsushima players raised nearly $50,000 to help rebuild a Torii gate on the island that was damaged by a typhoon.
[Source: VGC]
