Golden Week
business strong but
uneven

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Golden Week holiday period in Japan brought a quick boost in tourist travel to Hawaii.

Tourism industry officials say Japanese business, which has been running low all year, skyrocketed for some companies during the traditional vacation period when four national holidays fall within two weeks.

In the April 25-May 5 period, Japan Airlines saw its passenger arrivals total in Hawaii rise 41 percent compared with the Golden Week period last year, said Gilbert Kimura, JAL regional sales manager.

JTB Hawaii Inc., which handles ground arrangements in the islands, said its Golden Week business was up 45 percent compared with last year.

Clearly not everyone gained and it will be some time before overall numbers on visitor counts and spending are available.

United Airlines, for example, was running four fewer flights a week from Japan to Hawaii this year than at the same time last year because of the overall flatness in the Japanese market.

United was flying 14 Japan-Hawaii flights a week during this Golden Week period vs. 18 last year.

Northwest Airlines said it noticed just a small increase in Japan-Hawaii traffic this Golden Week compared with the period just before Golden Week.

"I wouldn't describe our results as being real strong," said Doug Killian, spokesman at Northwest's headquarters in Minneapolis. "We had higher loads for Golden Week than before Golden Week, but it wasn't one of the peak Golden Week periods," he said.

Even at JTB, the numbers weren't as high as the company hoped, since it had been watching a rising trend in bookings and expected more, but the numbers were welcome anyway.

"JTB had 15,000 Japanese arrivals during the Golden Week period, just shy of the target, which was 16,000," said David McNeil, a JTB spokesman in Honolulu.

Aside from the negative impact of Japan's poor economy on travel plans, this was the third year in a row in which the four Japanese national holidays fell on days that made it hard to get a long continuous work break, McNeil said.

Also, despite a lot of discounting this year, some Japanese may still be dodging Golden Week because of its long-held reputation for higher prices, he said.

"The packages were discounted this year. People are more cost-conscious, which is a state of mind that is coming from the economic slowdown," McNeil said.

"There has been a trend towards a slowdown at Golden Week because traditionally in the peak period prices have been higher. To reverse that, all of the wholesalers discounted," he said.

It is also hard to know what economic impact the Golden Week business had on Hawaii, since the Japanese this year made shorter trips than in the past and probably spent less in the islands, McNeil said.

Still, local tourist industry executives welcomed the boost.

"Our Japanese numbers were up for Golden Week," said Keith Vieira, vice president and director of marketing for the Sheraton hotels in Hawaii. "Overall occupancy was flat but Japanese room-nights were up during just the Golden Week period."

John Votsis, head of sales for the Hilton resorts in Hawaii, reported a similar experience. "We saw a slight bump in our Japanese package-tour business," he said. Japanese business was up compared to just before Golden Week, but not necessarily better than the year-earlier period, Votsis said. "We could use more."