Survey: Hawaii top
fall pick of Japanese
honeymooners

Star-Bulletin staff

Hawaii is the favorite fall destination for Japanese honeymooners, a survey shows, another boost from a market that has shown great success for the state's tourism market throughout 1999.

A Japan Travel Bureau Inc. survey of 3,236 couples who booked honeymoon trips at JTB offices in Japan showed 26.4 percent picking Hawaii, beating out the U.S. mainland (23.7 percent) and Australia (18.6 percent).

Among those planning to hold the actual wedding ceremony overseas in the October-December period, 60 percent of the couples chose to do so in Hawaii, JTB said.

The company, Japan's biggest travel agency, said 291 Japanese couples booked wedding ceremonies in Hawaii for the final quarter of this year.

According to state figures released today, 37,145 couples people came to Hawaii from all sources for honeymoons in September, a 30.7 percent increase from 28,425 couples in September 1998. Japanese honeymooners in Hawaii in September totaled 15,875 couples, an increase of 36.1 percent from 11,665 couples in the previous September.

The Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism figures show 261,550 honeymoon couples in the islands in the first nine months of this year, up 21.7 percent from 214,885 couples in the year-earlier period.

Japanese honeymooners in the first nine months totaled 118,775 couples, up 18.1 percent from 100,540 in the 1998 period.