Japan Travel Bureau Inc. checked the preferences of some 2,800 Japanese couples making bookings for fall honeymoons and found Hawaii narrowly edging out Australia for the top spot, which Australia held for six years.
JTB, Japan's largest travel agency, attributed Hawaii's climb to No. 1, in part, to the increasing popularity of the wedding ceremonies offered here for Japanese couples.
Looking at wedding/honeymoon trips planned for October through December, JTB said attractive prices now make it easy for friends and relatives to come to Hawaii weddings. This year, the neighbor islands are much more popular, JTB added. "The most frequent pattern for weddings attended by relatives and friends is to hold the ceremony in Honolulu, where those attending remain to enjoy themselves at their leisure, while the couple go to another island for their honeymoon," the report said.
Maui is particularly popular, scoring 70 percent of the Japanese neighbor island honeymoon bookings, but Japan Airlines Inc.'s new Tokyo-Kona direct service is boosting the Big Island, which has 25 percent of the neighbor island honeymoon business, JTB said.
"Recently overseas wedding ceremonies attended by the parents and other relatives and friends are becoming the rule rather than the exception and Hawaii is chosen for its warmth and the virtual absence of language problems," the report said.
The Rev. Beverly Bates, who performs the ceremonies at the Ilikai Chapel, described business at the chapel as "phenomenal."
"We've doubled since last year," she said today. Takami Corp., a big supplier in Japan of Western-style wedding gowns, opened the chapel early last year. Hawaii makes sense for Japanese weddings, Bates said. Wedding costs in Japan are enormous, she said, because of the obligation to invite co-workers, business associates and others outside the family and provide lavish dinners.
"It breaks the children before they can even get started," Bates said.
A Japanese group of 10 to 15 can have a Hawaii wedding with the finest gowns, tuxedos and catering, plus have a vacation for much less than the cost of a wedding in Japan, she said.
Japanese honeymooners are big business for Hawaii. In 1994, the last year for which figures are available, 14.9 percent of the travelers from Japan were honeymooners. If the percentage remains the same, some 313,000 Japanese will honeymoon in Hawaii, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau estimates.