It's been almost five years since the COVID-19 pandemic halted tourism to Hawaiʻi. While U.S. visitor numbers are strong today, that's not the case for the Japan market.
Last year, the number of visitors who came to Hawaiʻi from Japan was less than half the number who came in 2019. It's not just the lingering effects of the pandemic keeping some of them away.
The exchange rate of the yen to the U.S. dollar has dropped so much that it costs 31% more to exchange yen for dollars, and that’s not counting for inflation.
Yuko Yoshida is the marketing director at The LineUp at WaiKai in ʻEwa Beach. She traveled to Japan three times last year to court a market that was once a given for Hawaiʻi.
She said many younger people in Japan are finding it cheaper to travel to places like Korea or Taiwan than to come to Hawaiʻi. So she is marketing to wealthy families and travel agencies in Japan.
There is optimism that travel from Japan will strengthen. Jerry Gibson is the president of the Hawaiʻi Hotel Alliance. He said that he and others in the industry still see Japan as a very viable partner.
After all, Gibson said, they love Hawaiʻi and have been coming for generations.
