This time of year, Vangelis Papas is usually busy guiding spendthrift Japanese tourists around the cathedrals and opera houses of Prague and Vienna. This week, he's in Tokyo in search of a market that went away.
"We've lost 80 percent of our customers," said Papas, general manager of Hungary-based Euroguide coach tours. While Japanese are canceling in droves, those from China are snapping up bargain offers. "If they get lower rates they don't mind, they travel," he said.
Last year, a record 17.8 million Japanese ventured abroad, helping to fill handbag boutiques, sightseeing tours and hotels from Paris to Sydney and New York. The second-biggest economy provided two-thirds of the foreign tourists from the Asia Pacific to the US, spending an average US$164 a day, or 80 percent more than the typical German visitor.
That spending gusher is spluttering. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Japanese tourists have canceled about half their planned holidays in the US, Singapore and other markets.
That's leaving Japan Airlines Co and other carriers struggling to stem losses, and setting back the whole industry's recovery.
"Without their return, [tourism] faces a slow recovery," said Seiko Taniguchi, Hong Kong-based director of the Japan National Tourist Organization. Japanese tourists account for a 10th of visitors to Hong Kong.
Elsewhere in Asia, airlines and travel agents are reporting the first signs of a revival. Korean Air Co, that country's biggest carrier, said Wednesday it's seeing demand pick up, including to US destinations such as Los Angeles.
Hong Kong-based Fellington American Express Travel Services Ltd said sales in November are up between 10 percent and 15 percent from October, yet still more than 30 percent less than usual. "It's just a little rebound," said Lily Agonoy, the agency's assistant general manager.
Japanese travel companies would be happy for any recovery.
Drop in passsengers
Tokyo's main international airport at Narita yesterday said it handled 36 percent fewer departing passengers in the Nov. 1 to Nov. 20 period than a year earlier. The drop was more than the 32 percent in October, including 41 percent for Japanese passengers.
Narita accounts for half of Japan's international air traffic.
Efforts to entice Japanese back on board jets, including free hotel stays and steep discounts, aren't making much impact.
To Hawaii, the single favorite destination for outbound Japanese tourists, there are a "lot of cheap products but still it cannot recover," said Koji Shinmachi, president of Jalpak Co, a travel agent unit of Japan Airlines, Asia's No. 1 carrier.
The Travel Industry Association of America, which represents US airlines and other tourism companies, plans to turn three commuter trains in Tokyo into "rolling billboards" next April, said Suzanne Cook, a senior vice president of the group.
Japan Airlines has cut 9 percent of its seat capacity on overseas routes until the end of March, including 28 percent on transpacific routes. The Tokyo-based airline will fly 51 times a week to Hawaii in December, 27 fewer than originally planned.
JTB Corp, the country's largest travel company, is now offering a five-day, three-night tour to the island chain for ?49,800 (US$404), compared with the cheapest price of ?66,000 before the attacks, company spokesman Hiroshi Ueno said.
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