Japan Airlines executive criticizes Hawai'i tourism
By David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer
A top executive with Japan Airlines, Japan's largest carrier, criticized Hawai'i's tourism industry for not keeping up with trends and warned that a lack of action will lead to a continued decline in visitors.
Takashi Masuko, the company's senior managing director and president of JAL Sales Network, pointed to the drop in Japanese tourism before Sept. 11 — from a peak of 2.2 million visitors in 1997 to 1.87 million last year — and said, "If Hawai'i doesn't do more, it will continue to fall."
Masuko was one of 23 senior Japanese travel executives who met with 22 of their Hawai'i counterparts at the Hilton Hawaiian Village yesterday to discuss how to reinvigorate their industry. Nearly three months after the attacks on New York and Washington, Japanese arrivals to Hawai'i are still down 46 percent from a year ago, even though arrivals from the Mainland are off only 4 percent.
Hawai'i hotels and retail outlets that depend on Japanese travelers can expect only a gradual improvement in those numbers in coming months, Masuko said. Japan Airlines' bookings for December are 57 percent of where they stood at this point last year. January is at 70 percent, and February is 80 percent.
The executives attending the conference, sponsored by Japan Airlines and the Hawai'i Visitor & Convention Bureau, agreed to three steps. They will develop a "Hawai'i Sports Series" of 12 monthly events in which Japanese amateurs will be invited to participate, make information about security in Hawai'i available on a Japanese Web site and publish manuals in Japanese explaining how to cope with illness or accidents in Hawai'i.
Masuko praised these efforts but questioned why it took the events of Sept. 11 to get the Hawai'i tourism industry moving.
"Such kind of effort has not been made up until the incident," Masuko said. "The Hawai'i side should be more keen to catch up with trends in Japanese tourism," he said.
Only one in 10 Japanese visitors go to Neighbor Islands, Masuko noted, saying that is an experience that would appeal to Japanese travelers today who are seeking destinations off the beaten track.
Fumi Dan, a Japanese actress who spoke at the conference, said this was her first trip to Hawai'i despite years of travel to other foreign destinations.
"Hawai'i was too well known to Japanese and too Japanized. It didn't feel like you are going to a foreign country," she said, describing her opinion prior to coming.
Now she is impressed with the hospitality of the Hawai'i people and would like to return, she said.
Dan then explained that she would not be as attracted to Hawai'i if it becomes overrun with Japanese tourists and asked, "Do you really want to get the numbers back to 2.2 million," referring to the peak level of arrivals in 1997.
"Absolutely," said Peter Schall, the managing director of the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Schall defended Hawai'i's travel industry, saying it is responding to the changing tastes of Japanese visitors. He pointed to the effort being made to bring more O'ahu residents back to Waikiki.
"We want kama'aina to mix with the visitors from Japan," Schall said.
He also said travel agents are adjusting to the fact that more Japanese now shun group tours, preferring to strike out on their own.
The conferees' efforts to bring back Japanese tourists couldn't come soon enough for DFS sales clerk Kiyoko Ankrom, working just below where the executives were meeting.
Her hours were cut after Sept. 11 and she is worried that if more Japanese don't come, the hours will be cut further.
"After Sept. 11 it was so sad," she said. "It used to be only Japanese in here. Today I only had people from the Mainland."
