Commerce chief embarks on trade mission to Japan
By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer
The federal government is launching an aggressive bid to boost Japanese tourism to the United States in a move that could help shore up sagging travel and provide a much-needed boost to Hawai'i's own struggling industry.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans will travel to Tokyo tomorrow as part of a mission that officials hope will end with a commitment to rebuild tourism between the United States and Japan during the next five years.
Although Japanese tourists have been returning to Hawai'i in numbers approaching their pre-Sept. 11 levels — now only off about 15 percent from last year — they continue to shun the Mainland for economic and safety reasons, according to industry experts.
In 2000, Japan represented the top overseas market for the United States in both arrivals and receipts.
More than 5 million Japanese visitors came to the United States, generating $14 billion. That same year, 1.3 million U.S. residents traveled to Japan, producing $3.8 billion in revenues.
Evans will try to establish a Tourism Export Expansion Initiative that would provide a consolidated message on the United States' efforts to improve safety and security of travel to U.S. destinations. It would also bring industry leaders from both countries together twice a year to find ways to better promote tourism.
The U.S. sites for those meetings would alternate between Hawai'i locations — Honolulu and Maui, specifically — and the Mainland, according to a paper provided by the Commerce Department to Congress.
Kiyoshi Mukumoto, vice president for the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau's Japan office, will be in Tokyo to participate in the signing of the memorandum of understanding for the initiative between the United States and Japan.
The initiative would be led by tourism industry leaders from both countries and would create working groups focused on marketing and promotion, product development, public and media relations, research and information, education and training, and safety and security.
Private-sector representatives from top tourism states or territories including Hawai'i, California, Guam, Nevada and New York, and cities including Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City, San Francisco, and the island of Maui will receive priority in serving on the initiative.
"The key work will be everything that happens afterward," Tony Vericella, executive director of the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau, said yesterday. "They know that we're involved. They know that we are 1,000 percent committed to rebuilding tourism. We told the Commerce Department that we will be an active participant in all that they do."
Vericella was invited to Washington, D.C., early last month to talk with U.S. commerce and travel representatives, and a visiting Japanese delegation, about ways to boost tourism between the countries. One of the issues discussed was creating an environment that is not only safe but hospitable.
Vericella said Commerce Department representatives asked him to share how Hawai'i has worked with Japan's government and travel industry to boost visitor arrivals.
Hawai'i's efforts have served as a model for the rest of the United States, said Vericella, largely because the state's recovery in Japanese tourists has gone "spectacularly" compared to the Mainland.
But rebuilding tourism from Japan still faces significant challenges.
"Our biggest obstacle is the economic situation in Japan," said Yujiro Kuwabara, general manager for tour planning and marketing with JTB. Travelers increasingly are booking at the last minute and looking for special deals, which creates uncertainty in the industry.
Safety issues also remain a concern for Mainland travel.
"(The Mainland) is suffering much more," said Kuwabara. "People don't worry about terrorism (when coming to Hawai'i), but for the Mainland, they are still carrying the images."
Having high-level officials journey to various destinations twice a year not only demonstrates to would-be travelers how safe it is, it creates buzz. Making Hawai'i one of those destinations is an added bonus.
"If they're looking at established meetings for years to come, that's big," said Alvin Wong, director of sales and marketing for the Renaissance Ilikai Hotel. The meetings would create the kind of tourism exposure "that advertising alone cannot really generate."
And the Commerce Department mission may be a sign that officials are "gaining a new perspective on the importance of this industry," said Mark Hukill, interim associate dean of the University of Hawai'i's School of Travel Industry Management.
The key to finding out how an initiative like this might directly affect Hawai'i will be to find out how it directly translates into coinciding with marketing efforts that actually bring people to the Islands, said Hukill.
Though trade and economic issues will receive much of the attention, a "big portion" of the sojourn will be devoted to tourism-related issues, according to Trevor Francis, spokesman for the Commerce Department. "This is an issue of great importance ... and it will feature prominently in the conversations that will take place in Tokyo."
Officials hope the initiative with Japan will serve as a model for developing initiatives between the United States and other international markets.
According to the preliminary estimates for 2001 from the Commerce Department, international travel to the United States will decrease 11 percent from previous-year levels.
The result will be a 45 percent decrease in travel trade surplus, from $14 billion to $7.7 billion. Officials in the department believe that international travel to the United States may not return to 2000 levels for three more years.
Reach Katherine Nichols at knichols@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
