Fewer Japanese taking Vegas vacations

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Reports from Japan's two largest airlines on travel to Las Vegas echo what Hawai'i tourism officials and Las Vegas businesses and tourism officials have known for months: Fewer Japanese are traveling to the United States.

Katsumi Aiba, general manager for Japan Travel Bureau in Los Angeles, said many Japanese are still reluctant to visit because of the terrorist attacks and troubles with their nation's economy.

Aiba said reductions in air service between Japan and McCarran International Airport also have hurt Japanese travel to Las Vegas.

"Northwest Airlines stopped flying to Las Vegas directly (in March 2001) and JAL (Japan Airlines) still does not have daily flights to Las Vegas," Aiba told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Because of that, I don't think travel to Las Vegas is getting any better."

JAL is the only carrier that offers nonstop service between Japan and Las Vegas. Through June, it carried 25,318 passengers through McCarran, a 62 percent decline compared with the first six months of last year.

Much of the decline stems from JAL's suspension of Las Vegas service shortly after Sept. 11. The carrier resumed service March 1 with three weekly flights and has since increased service to five flights per week.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority figures show Japanese visitors made up the largest segment of foreign travelers who came to Las Vegas in 2000. That year, an estimated 511,000 Japanese visited the city and had a nongambling economic impact of nearly $322 million.

Heather Vanderberghe, New York-based spokeswoman for retailer Louis Vuitton, said her company's two Strip stores have reported "significantly fewer" Japanese customers since fall.

JAL, Japan's No. 1 air carrier, said Monday the number of passengers it flew to the continental United States and Hawai'i between late July and early August fell by 18 percent compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, No. 2 carrier All Nippon Airways, which does not offer direct flights between Japan and Las Vegas, said its flights to and from Japan and the United States had about 20 percent fewer passengers than last summer.