Japan finds consolation as Asian tourists increase
| • | Trouble in paradise |
| • | Room tax shortfall may hurt recovery |
| • | Attacks fail to detour South Pacific tourism |
| • | Light demand delays Japan Airlines' recovery on international routes |
By Yoshiko Matsushita
Bloomberg News Service
FUKUOKA, Japan — Kang Su-jin and Park Su-yeon skipped five days of classes to visit Japan.
On the itinerary for the two South Korean university students: shopping, a Dutch theme park and soaking in outdoor hot springs.
"It's close and cheap," said Kang, after arriving from Busan, a three-hour ferry trip to Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu. The $100 ticket was less than half the cost of flying, affordable for the girls' $1,300 budget.
Kang and Park are part of an increasing number of Asians drawn to Japan. They climb Fukuoka's tower, they visit Osaka's Universal Studios theme park, they tour Tokyo's DisneySea resort.
Japan, once the economic engine of Asia, is benefiting as it tries to emerge from its third recession in the past decade.
"Tourism is the only thing that's coming back so far," said Takahiro Oishi, deputy director of economic research at the Fukuoka Chamber of Commerce and Industries. "Everything else is still very bad."
The number of tourists visiting Japan rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier to 4.8 million in the five months through May, according to the Japan National Tourist Organization.
The number of Asian visitors rose 10 percent in the first three months of the year from a year earlier. The number of Koreans, who account for about 40 percent of the total, increased 15 percent, the organization said.
More than 660,000 international tourists visited DisneySea and Disneyland in the year ended March 31. The home of Mickey Mouse and Goofy is such a hit with Koreans that when Kim Jong Nam, eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport last year, he claimed he simply wanted to visit Disneyland.
So many Koreans and Chinese are visiting the 600-year-old Kinkaku-ji Temple, in the former imperial capital of Kyoto to gaze at the Golden Pavilion, that Korean and Chinese language have been added to the Japanese and English guides.
Diverging economics
The economic fortunes of the co-hosts of the World Cup soccer finals have diverged.
Japan's economy, the world's second-biggest, probably won't grow this fiscal year after shrinking 1.3 percent in the year ended March 31, the government says.
South Korea expects its economy to grow at least 6 percent this year, double last year's pace.
China's economy, the second-largest in Asia, grew 8 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, accelerating from the first quarter's 7.6 percent pace.
Kyushu, the third biggest of Japan's four main islands, has taken a beating of late. Niko Niko Do Co., a supermarket chain, and retailer Kotobukiya Co., both based in Kumamoto, have filed for bankruptcy this year.
Unemployment is running at 6.3 percent on Kyushu, higher than the national average of 5.4 percent. Even the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks baseball team, national champions in 2000, is 12 1/2 games out of first place in the Pacific League and in danger of missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Resorts step up marketing
Hotels and resorts on Kyushu are trying to tap the growing Asian market.
The Suginoi Hotel in Beppu, famed for its outdoor hot springs with mineral-rich waters that are reputed to heal painful nerves and joints, sends one of its 10 sales staff members to South Korea each month to drum up corporate and travel-agency business.
The hotel, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2001, attracted 30,000 guests last year, 20 percent more than the previous year, by offering low-priced package tours for Korean tourists, said Toshiaki Ito, head of sales and planning.
"Thanks to our sales efforts and the economy there picking up, we've had an increase in visitors from Korea," said Ito.
Ninety-eight percent of the hotel's foreign visitors are Asian, with about three-fifths of them coming from Korea, he said.
Sights to behold
Outside Fukuoka, tourists flock to Huis Ten Bosch, the Dutch theme park in Nagasaki, where visitors can climb a 315-foot replica of Holland's tallest church tower, experience the voyage that brought Dutch traders to the city 400 years ago and then spend a night in the Hotel Amsterdam.
In the year ended March 31, 43,000 Koreans visited the park, a 150 percent increase from the previous year, said Liu Hou-Chih, who works in the park's international department.
On a recent weekend, about 35 students from Seoul's Naejung Middle School crowded the top of the 380-foot Fukuoka Tower.
Wearing blue T-shirts from their school, they gawked at the beachfront that was built on landfill. They marveled at the domed baseball stadium and the surrounding glass office buildings. And they bought souvenirs.
That may be on the agenda if Kang and Park return some day.
"If we have the money and the time, we'll definitely make it back" said Kang and Park.
