Japan Airlines looks
for a new approach

The travel trend is toward Asia,
shorting its Hawaii flights

---

By Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com

Once confident that Japanese travel to Hawaii would recover from Sept. 11, Japan Airlines Co. now acknowledges it doesn't have all the answers, a spokesman said.

Young Japanese, the 20-somethings, are heading to cheaper destinations in Asia, such as China and Vietnam, JAL spokesman Gilbert Kimura said.

"I don't know if there's a solution. The Japanese -- they follow the trend, and once the trend started to head toward Asia ... " Kimura said.

"Hawaii is a mature destination," he said. "Everyone knows Hawaii and Hawaii has been the most popular destination."

But given the new popularity of Asia, Japan Airlines doesn't know what marketing approach to use to counter the trend.

To find answers, the staff of the Hawaii Tourism Authority has called a private meeting of every business in Hawaii that works directly with Japanese visitors. Airlines, travel agents, wholesalers, retailers and attractions are being invited to a Friday discussion at the Hawaii Convention Center.

"Anybody that has a clue about Japan is interested," said Frank Haas, director of tourism marketing for the authority. While the agency intends to hold similar meetings for other markets, it is timely to start with Japan, Haas said.

Kimura said he is looking forward to getting some answers.

Japan Airlines' international passenger counts were down 6.2 percent during the peak summer travel season that took place from July 20 to Aug. 18. Domestic numbers rose 2.3 percent.

Hawaii had 680,720 arrivals from Japan in the first half of the year, a 20 percent decline from 849,748 last year, according to state figures.

It seems important to find new ways to attract young people back to Hawaii, Kimura said. On the other hand, JAL's bread-and-butter customers in Hawaii are honeymooners and older golfers. "It's not like we're losing the whole total market," Kimura said. "We're still strong on the honeymooners and the silver-hair type.

"Once you concentrate too much on the younger people ... you lose our very steady customers. That won't be a good idea."

For now, Japan Airlines is talking about dropping one of four daily Tokyo-Honolulu flights, freeing up a 747 aircraft to use in its growing Asia market, Kimura said.

"Until now, we were confident that the market (was) coming back," Kimura said. But Japanese arrivals to Hawaii hit a wall in August. Japan Airlines, caught off-guard, quickly realized that there was no way arrivals could quickly recover to pre-Sept. 11 levels.