US. Japanese visitor numbers to the US mainland surged by +61.2% year-on-year in March as the result of pent-up demand.
Traffic to the US was particularly depressed in March 2003 due to the Iraq war.
Quoting the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI), Travel Journal International Online (TJI) said that the number of Japanese visiting the US (including Hawaii and Guam) climbed +11.7% in March – the fifth consecutive monthly increase since November 2003.
The rise was partly fueled by the double-digit increases seen for travel to Guam. Travel to the resort destination plummeted early last year amid the fall-out from damage created by a super typhoon. Arrivals in Guam from Japan have surged between +40% and +89% in the first four months of 2004 year-on-year. In March, growth reached +52.2% to 62,283 visitors.
The US mainland rate of +61.2% to 138,931 is based on calculations deducting the arrivals from Hawaii and Guam from the count for the entire US. “The tally in March rose well above the 100,000 threshold, reaching to normal levels seen in the pre-9/11 period in 2001,” said TJI.
A strong exchange rate of the Japanese Yen against the US Dollar and the improved Japanese economy appear to have spurred travel demand, particularly among individual travelers (FITs), TJI added. This was buoyed by the popularity of special deals offered by airlines and Japanese travel wholesalers.
Meanwhile, traffic from Japan to Hawaii in April topped 2002 levels, “underscoring the complete recovery of the Japanese market to the beach resort destination”, TJI noted.
According to the Hawaii state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), the number of Japanese visitors arriving in Hawaii surged +55.4% from a year ago.
The rise marked the second monthly increase for the year and surpassed the count of 103,460 recorded in April 2002. DBEDT reported an 0.7 percentage point rise in first-time Japanese visitors, which represent a 48.7% share of all Japanese travelers to Hawaii.
For the first four months of 2004, the number of Japanese travelers visiting Hawaii reached 445,778, up +7.9% from the same period a year earlier.
MORE STORIES ON JAPANESE TRAVEL
Hong Kong tries to woo back Japanese travellers – 27/05/04
Decline in Japanese travel halted in March – 25/05/04
Japanese eager to snap up summer tours – 24/05/04
Japan’s two biggest airports post double-digit increases though yearly numbers soft – 25/05/04
JTB prepares to send Japanese spectators to Athens – 24/05/04 ERE
