Traditional
vacation week
less than golden

Fewer Japanese visitors are
expected in "Golden Week"

How Hawaii compares

---

By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Hawaii can expect a 9.8 percent decrease in the number of Japanese visitors coming to the islands for "Golden Week," the period at the end of April and beginning of May that strings national holidays together to make a peak travel period.

JTB Corp., Japan's biggest travel agency, said a survey of its customers showed that 46,000 Japanese are expected to visit the islands during the week, compared with 51,000 in last year's holiday period. The figures show that the Japanese are staying closer to home, with Korea expecting 78,000 travelers from Japan during Golden Week, close to the 79,000 that visited last year, and China expecting 62,000, up 12.4 percent from last year's 50,000.

However, with Japanese arrivals to Hawaii running 40 percent or more below last year at times since Sept. 11, the figures may be encouraging to the tourist industry.

JTB said some Japanese will combine their holidays and vacation days in different ways from others. The holiday period starts with Midori-no-hi or "Greenery Day" on Monday, April 29. Vacationers could head out on the previous Friday, have a two-day weekend and the Monday holiday for a three-day stay. There is also a holiday the same week on Friday, May 3, "Constitution Memorial Day."

May 4 is "People's Day," but that is not usually a holiday if it falls on a Saturday, as it does this year. There are enough holidays in a seven-day period, though, for many workers to take some personal days off and combine them into a vacation long enough for them to come to Hawaii.

Another factor, tourism officials said, is that schools and businesses in Japan have moved toward a shorter week with Saturday, traditionally a working day, now more likely than ever to be a day off.

However, Japanese travelers are expected to be watching their money, JTB said, with exchange rates against the dollar not as high as they were and the country's downtrodden economy an ongoing concern. More than 30 percent of the 2,200 travelers responding to the JTB questionnaire this year said they "want to decrease expenditures.

BACK TO TOP
|

Less luster JTB Corp. said Japanese travel to Hawaii will be down during Golden Week this year. Dest. visitors % chng Hawaii 46,000 -9.8 Guam/Saipan 36,000 -12.2 Mainland 40,000 -35.5 Canada 9,000 -10.0 Korea 78,000 -1.3 China 62,000 +24.0 Source: JTB Corp.