Japan tourist
spending plunges

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The average Japanese tourist spent $294 a day last year in Hawaii, a sharp 17.6 percent drop from $356 a day in 1995, the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau said today.

Much of the decline was attributed to a weakening yen and a change in spending habits.

The category showing the biggest drop in per-capital spending was sightseeing trips. Outlays on tours dropped 29.6 percent to $13 a day last year from 1995, according to the HVCB, which studied information from Japanese tourists who kept daily diaries of their expenses.

Spending on fashion, still a top item among the Japanese, also weakened.

The average Japanese in 1996 spent $99 a day in the garment and accessory shops, a decline of 13 percent from 1995, the HVCB said.

Food and beverage spending slipped 8.3 percent to $42 a day, and lodging fell 10.9 percent to $80.

The only major category in which the Japanese spent more last year than in 1995 was in entertainment, up 6.3 percent at $11 a day, the HVCB said.

The overall drop was not a surprise to the tourist industry, the bureau said.

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"We've been monitoring the economic situation in Japan for some time, so these figures do not come as a surprise to us," said Roberta Rinker-Ludloff, HVCB vice president, marketing.

"In fact, we doubled the number of Japanese surveys last year to help monitor changes in spending. We found that as the price of packaged trips to Hawaii became more competitive and the dollar strengthened against the yen, Hawaii attracted a more value-conscious Japanese traveler in 1996."

Last year, 1,245 Japanese participated in the detailed study, up from 617 in 1995.

They kept track of the details of all expenses, such as what they spent for shopping, meals, taxis or buses, visits to attractions and where they stayed and what their rooms cost.

Overall last year, 2.8 million Japanese visited Hawaii, a 6.6 percent increase from 1995, but their average stay was shorter last year.

Elsewhere in the expenditure report, there was some good news on spending by visitors from the mainland. Their per-capita spending averaged $138 a person a day last year, up 4 percent from $133 in 1995.

"If they do come, they've got the money, so that's a nice upward move," said Barbara Okamoto, HVCB director of market research.

Okamoto said the bureau's market research shows that improved economic conditions in Hawaii's key mainland markets gave those visitors more confidence in their spending habits during their trips.

The HVCB said its preliminary studies don't give it enough details yet to come up with reliable total visitor expenditure numbers for 1996. Its estimate for 1995 was total direct spending of $11.6 billion, made up of $4.7 billion by those from the mainland, $4.3 billion by Japanese and $2.5 billion by others.