U.S. Tourism Hurt as Japanese Spurn Travel in Wartime
With allied soldiers risking their lives in the Gulf War, Japan has decided that it is no time for its citizenry to be seen taking in the wonders of the world and having a good time. Thus, Japanese government officials are telling people not to travel abroad.
Americans “are spilling their blood for us,” Shokei Arai, a member of the Japanese Diet, said recently in a statement that is being echoed in business and bureaucratic circles. “Young Japanese shouldn’t be playing around in American tourist areas.”
It’s a touching thought, but the gesture is hardly being welcomed by the United States.
“The thought is understandable and maybe even admirable,” says Fritz Schmitz, regional director of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration. However, he says, the drop in Japanese travel, coming at a time when America is already in a recession, is doing further harm to the U.S. economy.
So far this year, tour operators report that Japanese travel overseas is down 20% to 30%. For the United States, which has come to depend on tourism as an important source of foreign exchange, this could mean more red ink in its trade balance. In the first nine months of last year, the United States had a $6-billion surplus in tourist trade with Japan. It also means empty hotel rooms and lost jobs in areas such as Hawaii that are heavily dependent on tourism.
The numbers could look worse for the end of February and March, when Japanese students, who are just completing their school year, normally go overseas en masse . Schmitz estimates that as many as 80% of all student trips have been canceled.
The Japan Travel Bureau, Japan’s largest tour group, has already received 87,000 cancellations for February and March, about 20% of its total business. Before the war, the company had predicted that the Japanese would spend $41.5 billion on overseas trips this year, up 8.6% from 1990. Now, all bets are off.
One reason for the mass cancellations: Japan’s Ministry of Education has sent letters to the nation’s schools telling students to take into consideration the “danger of terrorist activities” when planning their spring breaks.
The Health and Welfare Ministry is telling university hospital doctors not to go to international conferences. Japanese researchers, scheduled to present key papers at a semiconductor conference in San Francisco last week, decided to stay home. A meeting of the joint steering committee of the Japan-U.S. Businessman’s Conference, which was to start in Hawaii Sunday, was called off.
Fear of terrorism is obviously an important factor. But equally important is the propriety of having fun in wartime.
“Japanese are very sensitive to the question of what is appropriate behavior,” says Kazuo Akiyama, deputy director of the Japan Assn. of Travel Agents. He notes that there were few receptions and parties during the four months the late Emperor Hirohito was on his deathbed in late 1988.
The herd mentality of the Japanese has also contributed to the massive cancellations, says Michiyuki Yonemura, general manager of Amenity Travel. Unless the war is over by the end of March, he says, the critical summer travel season is likely to be down sharply.
Not everybody believes that Japan should be so sensitive. “America went ahead with the Super Bowl,” says Toyokazu Kobayashi, an Osaka travel agent who says he could go bankrupt if the war lasts too long.
Numerous tour companies have asked the U.S. Embassy to come to the rescue with a statement announcing that Japanese are welcome and that the United States is safe. But although there have been no terrorist incidents in America, officials are understandably reluctant to publish such assurances. “A lot of people say we ought to do something, but what can we do?” Schmitz says.
Michael H. Armacost, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, has tried to encourage Asians to keep traveling to America. “Just because some Americans are putting their lives on the line, don’t feel you aren’t welcome,” he was quoted as having told travel representatives at a Pan Pacific Conference on Tourism in Japan recently.
Although the Japanese worry about how they are regarded by foreigners, they have hardly given up on having fun altogether. Tour agents report that domestic travel plans are up by more than 50%, with travelers rushing to ski and hot spring resorts.
