High cost of travel, a fuel surcharge to cover high oil prices and lack of flights contributed to a decline in Japanese entrants for December's Honolulu Marathon.

In preliminary figures released today, total entries have dropped by more than 4,000 — more than half from Japanese entrants — which likely will put a $15 million to $20 million dent in the race's $100 million economic impact.

Previous economic studies of the Honolulu Marathon showed Japanese entrants bring at least one person with them to Hawai'i, spend $270 to $280 a day and stay for five days.

"All of a sudden, you don't have 2,800-2,900 Japanese and they are the highest spenders," said Hawai'i Pacific University professor Jerry Agrusa, who has conducted the previous studies. "This is a big injection of yen, cash, into the economy, especially now with the significant decrease in tourism.

"Will they spend as much as last year? We'll have to see."

There are 13,670 Japanese runners for this year's race, compared to more than 16,000 who signed up by last November for the 2007 race.

Japanese entrants accounted for more than 17,000 of last year's 27,827 total entrants. The Honolulu Marathon, which is the third largest race in the United States, generated nearly $109 million last year, including $3.7 million in state taxes

That figure is expected to be $85 million to $90 million.

"It's a larger tourism issue in terms of flight capacity from Japan, which has been going down in the last few years," Honolulu Marathon Association President Jim Barahal said. "We do have essentially waiting lists for lack of ability for finding a way to get here.

"We expect to see most of the economic impact is coming from Japanese visitors and Mainland and foreigners."

Flights earlier this year were more than $700 plus an additional $300-400 fuel surcharge. That fuel charge, which Agrusa said was somewhat of a deterrent, has since dropped.

For more on this story, see tomorrow's edition of The Advertiser.