Japanese visitation to LV grows, bucking worldwide trend

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 12:42 p.m.

Japan's economic woes have dented tourism revenues from Japanese travelers worldwide. But Las Vegas is continuing to draw increasing numbers of Japanese visitors who like getting more for their money here.

Carlos Tellos, director of marketing for the Las Vegas office of the Japan Travel Bureau, said while his agency hasn't hit its projected number of customers, it's still running 10 percent ahead of last year's statistics.

Experts cautioned that JTB's numbers may not reflect the industry as a whole. That's because as the largest Japanese tour operator in the world with a market share of about 50 percent, the company would be the last to feel the pinch of the rocky economy.

There's little more than anecdotal information about the number of Japanese travelers who have visited Las Vegas this year, since the U.S. Commerce Department's tourism statistics are based on surveys that won't be compiled until the end of the calendar year.

The most recent Commerce Department statistics say 403,000 Japanese visited Las Vegas in 1997, when the economic downturn was in its infancy, a 29.6 percent increase over the 311,000 reported in 1996.

The local JTB office -- the largest tour operator for Japanese in Las Vegas -- today estimates its annual clientele at about 400,000. The local office experienced a 30 percent increase in tourists in 1997 and was expecting a 20 percent jump in 1998.

But instead of a 20 percent increase, traffic is up only 10 percent, Tellos said. And the economic downturn is only part of the reason: Northwest Airlines' pilot strike last month has had a detrimental impact as well.

"We've had to deal with two factors," Tellos said. "When Northwest started its nonstop flights in June, it started out kind of slow. We expected that it would pick up in September because most Japanese usually visit here between September and the end of February."

But the Northwest strike occurred in September and Tellos said most Las Vegas tours had to be re-routed through Los Angeles and San Francisco. Some tourists ended up canceling their trips to Nevada altogether.

With the strike ended and the economic doldrums forecast to last longer than anticipated, JTL now has been confronted with a new variable -- competition on the Northwest nonstop route from Japan Airlines, which began service earlier this month.

Tellos said advanced bookings for both Northwest and Japan Airlines are strong and now tour professionals from coast to coast have been calling him to find out his company's secret.

That secret, Tellos said, is that Las Vegas is perceived as a value destination.

"Tourists can spend several days here for the same amount of money they would pay for one night in San Francisco or New York," Tellos said.

That, he said, is what has driven Japanese tourists away from the U.S. destination they like to visit most, Hawaii, which has been No. 1 because it's a much shorter flight than other resort cities.

But Tellos said competition is continuing to heat up. The JTB, he said, is booking tours to Australia, New Zealand, Guam and Fiji, all closer to Japan than the U.S. mainland.

European nations -- especially Spain -- have dropped their prices in a bid to appeal to value-conscious travelers.

But Tellos is convinced the entry of Japan Airlines into the Las Vegas market will bring positive results since competition with Northwest is bound to keep air fares down.