JAL restoring service to Vegas

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 | 10:50 a.m.

Japan Airlines will reinstate its nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Tokyo in March, a company spokeswoman said today.

Irene Jackson, a JAL representative in New York, said the company, which suspended its five flights a week in October when demand plunged after September's terrorist attacks, said all five flights would be reinstated March 1.

Speculation about the reinstatement was raised Wednesday when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's representative in Japan said the airline was considering the move.

Kyosuke Okada, president of Okada Associates, Tokyo, commented on JAL's flight schedule at the closing day of the 18th annual Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism at the Rio hotel-casino.

The event, attended by more than 1,000 tourism professionals, included a trade show and three days of panels and presentations on issues surrounding the recovery of the industry from the Sept. 11 attacks.

Tokyo-based JAL reduced, then suspended its flights linking McCarran International Airport with Tokyo in October after demand dropped dramatically after the attacks. When the company announced the suspension, officials with the airline said flights would be discontinued through Jan. 31.

Okada said Wednesday the reinstatement of the nonstop flight would be more a symbol of the recovery of the Asian marketplace in Las Vegas than a significant contribution of passengers. JAL's flights carried about a quarter of the approximately 511,000 Japanese people who visited Las Vegas in 2000.

McCarran said 124,408 arrived on JAL in Las Vegas last year.

Las Vegas was on its way toward attracting a record number of Japanese tourists in 2001 when the attacks occurred, Okada said.

When four airliners were hijacked by terrorists, international travel by Japanese tourists plunged. Okada said the number of Japanese travelers fell 39 percent in October and the number of Japanese tourists to all destinations dropped below 1 million for the first time in seven years.

"There was daily news coverage on the World Trade Center attacks, the military action in Afghanistan and anthrax incidents," Okada said. "And the cultural attitude (in Japan) was that it was insensitive to travel while people are in mourning over loved ones lost in the terrorist attacks."

Some companies even forbid their employees from travelling internationally, Okada said. Toyota, the giant automaker, only recently lifted its international travel ban.

Okada said Japanese people didn't stop travelling -- they just toured domestically, producing a boom for Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios in Osaka.

"The result is enormous pent-up demand," Okada said. "The Japanese people kind of look around at each other, see what everyone else is doing and then go when everybody else seems to be going."

Unusual occurrences sometimes stir the Japanese people to change their travel mood, Okada said.

"The birth of a daughter to the prince and princess of Japan on Dec. 1 changed the mood of the country since Sept. 11," Okada said. "Economists say when their moods are brightened, consumers boost their spending. Northwest Airlines took the lead in this area by offering 'Princess Aiko special fares."'

As a result, Okada thinks recovery is going to occur quickly -- and the world needs to be ready for the demand. The rebound after the Gulf War and the Y2K scare exceeded expectations, he said.

The rebound of Japanese tourism is important to Las Vegas, he said, because Japanese tourists outspend other visitors. The Japanese spent an average $164 a day when they visited the United States in 2000 compared with $124 for visitors from the rest of Asia, $97 from tourists from Britain and $91 by Germans.

Meanwhile, half a world away, Las Vegas' European marketing team is looking forward to a big promotional opportunity that won't cost them a single euro.

T. Keith Mangum, president and owner of Mangum Management, Munich, Germany, and Stella Clery Ackland, managing director of Cellet Travel Services, London, both LVCVA representatives, said they expect to capitalize on the release of "Oceans Eleven," a motion picture about a series of casino robberies starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

"The release of that movie will help us because it shows the public that Las Vegas is hip," Mangum said in a Tuesday presentation on European and Latin marketing.

Ackland agreed, saying that her company plans promotional events centered around the film, released last week and holding onto its No. 1 ranking at the box office.

Travel from Europe wasn't impacted as severely as from Asia, the European marketers said. The fact that the terrorist incidents were focused on the East Coast actually helped Las Vegas, Ackland said.

Virgin Atlantic Airlines maintained its schedule of three nonstop flights a week between London and Las Vegas and Mangum said Condor Airlines' seasonal nonstop service between Frankfurt and Las Vegas would start up again in the spring.

Travel from Latin America may have the greatest potential for increases. Rafael Villanueva, a sales executive with the LVCVA in Las Vegas, said double-digit percentage increases in the number of visitors from Latin American countries are expected by 2005.

But Mexico is the only Latin country from which more than 1 million tourists visit Las Vegas. Aero Mexico, Mexicana, Aviacsa and Allegro Airlines offer nonstop flights between four Mexican cities and Las Vegas, but those are the only direct flights to any Latin country. Direct flights between Las Vegas and Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina are probably still years away due to low demand, Villanueva said.

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