Shunning Far-Off Shores

The world has changed a lot since Sept. 11. So has the spiel of travel promoters in Japan.

Japanese tourists are the golden geese of international travel. They spend a lot, often move in flocks and are generally polite and well behaved. But they’re also extremely risk-averse. Travel is down worldwide, and Japanese are leading the retreat. Destinations such as Hawaii, battling a 20% cancellation rate overall, have seen Japanese visits drop by more than 40%. That’s a big problem for economies with a hankering for yen.

In response, a cadre of Tokyo-based promoters is working overtime to lure timid travelers back to far-off shores, theme parks, ticky-tacky gift shops and native dancing shows.

It’s not an easy job. Imagine trying to market Israel these days to reluctant Japanese tourists. Suicide bombings, snipers and assassinations tend to dull the allure of the glossy travel brochures. The Jewish state’s long-term strategy in the face of bad news: soft-pedal religion, hard-pedal the environment.

“We try and sell the Dead Sea, flowers, bird-watching,” says Junko Nakajima, operation officer in the Israel Tourist Bureau office in Tokyo. “And if we can’t avoid the religious thing, we promote ourselves as the origin of Christianity.”

Turkey isn’t burdened by huge headlines painting the country in a bad light, but it’s been subtly tarred by a broad Mideast brush. This despite its being a longtime U.S. ally with a decidedly secular society free from most of the tensions seen in other parts of the Muslim world.

Japanese visitor arrivals are down by as much as 60% since the terrorist attacks. Turkey is “a safe country,” says Etsuko Makino, tourism official at the Turkish Embassy in Tokyo. “Our women don’t even wear veils.”

Egypt is trying to avoid this blanket treatment by exploiting a big blind spot. Most Japanese don’t realize that Egypt is 94% Muslim. And these days, marketing officials aren’t in any hurry to tell them.

“Japanese people are, well, a bit ignorant,” says Sachiko Uehara, publicist with the Egyptian Embassy. “All they think about is the pyramids, the Nile, the desert. When they get there, it’s sometimes a bit of a shock.”

As if life weren’t difficult enough for travel promoters right now, the Japanese government has added another hurdle. Since Sept. 11, the Foreign Ministry has given several countries a “Level 2” danger rating, with 0 deemed safe and 5 the most troublesome. Although it’s officially an advisory to travelers, tour agencies say it really amounts to an order to halt all group tours. Afghanistan, western Pakistan and much of Iraq are rated 5s.

Particularly irksome to countries that now find themselves on the list is the lack of obvious criteria for the ranking. “The terrorist attack happened in the United States, not in Turkey,” Makino says. “It’s a bit unfair that the Foreign Ministry puts Turkey at danger Level 2, but America isn’t even mentioned.” The United States is rated 0.

Tunisia is similarly miffed. It has an exemplary safety record, a long history of opposing terrorism and was one of the first nations to support President Bush in his anti-terrorism campaign, officials say, yet it’s also at Level 2. “We’re very unhappy about it,” says Salah Hannachi, the North African country’s ambassador to Japan. “By their rating system, Tunisia is as dangerous as Rwanda, Nigeria, Eritrea.”

Losing the Japanese can be costly. Despite its long-standing economic slump, Japan sent 17.8 million tourists overseas last year, up 9% from the year before. That’s about one-seventh of the country’s population. Combined, they spent $46.1 billion, about $2,600 per person per trip.

Foreign countries aren’t the only ones affected. Many U.S. states also find themselves struggling to reverse the slide after the footage seen around the globe of the World Trade Center collapsing.

“My daughter loves designer brands, and I’d planned on spending more than $1,800 shopping with her” in Hawaii, says Kayo Mochizuki, 44, a homemaker from Tokyo. “She’s very disappointed. . . . We went to Kagoshima [in southwestern Japan] instead.”

East Coast destinations have been hit harder than those on the West Coast, but no place is exempt.

Alaska, a popular destination among older Japanese keen to see glaciers, wildlife and the northern lights, does have at least one thing going for it. Many Japanese don’t realize that it’s part of the United States. “We get calls, even from travel agents, asking what currency you use over there,” says Yoichi Hayase, public relations manager with the Alaska Travel Industry Assn.

Other states have adopted different strategies. New York isn’t even thinking about bringing back wary Japanese until more time has passed and it’s tackled a lot of other problems. “It could take a while given the several cases of anthrax spores reported now,” says Hisao Misawa, Asia director of the New York State Department of Economic Development.

All the publicity about its flight schools and anthrax cases has created similar headaches for Florida. Also frustrating for some state promoters is the fact that most Japanese don’t know Florida as a state with 1,800 miles of sunny coastline, the Everglades and Miami Beach’s famous Art Deco buildings. They know it as a rodent with big ears.

“For most Japanese, Florida is Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse is Florida,” says Sachiko Cook, marketing assistant with Visit Florida. “Personally, I think manatees are much cuter than Mickey.”

Many states have opted to lie low for a while, at least until the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan winds down, before pouring a lot of money into promotion. Some locales can’t afford to wait, however, given the devastating impact on their economies.

Take Guam: Japan accounts for 70% of its tourists, who make up its biggest industry. So the island recently played its trump card by sending Miss Guam to Japan. In fact, it sent both of them--the island elects two each year--for added effect. Whether the hotel rooms will fill up remains to be seen, but the women proved to be a huge hit with the largely male corps of news reporters and photographers.

Hawaii sent its governor for a dog-and-pony show; New Zealand, its tourism minister. The Philippines and Las Vegas are planning to send their bigwigs to personalize the tourism pleas. And Saipan is following Guam’s lead with an eight-city series of seminars for Japanese travel agents.

Slogans are another tool. The Philippines hopes that its new campaign--”WOW Philippines!”--will work wonders. WOW stands variously for “Wealth of Wonders,” “Warm Over Winter” and “Wacko Over Wildlife.” Manila’s first priority is getting off Japan’s Level 2 danger list and making sure that the tours flow again. Otherwise WOW could become “World of Woes.”

“We’re a bit disturbed the Japanese government issued this advisory without any consultation,” says Benito Bengzon, Tokyo director of the Philippines Tourism Office. “From our perspective, the problem [of Muslim extremists kidnapping foreigners] is in an isolated area at the southern tip of the Philippines.”

Some nations were already battling public relations disasters before Sept. 11 and are now reeling anew. The high-profile deaths in June of 10 members of the Nepalese royal family already had tourists fleeing. “We were just starting to recover from that, and now this happens,” says Pankaj Rana, an official in the Nepal Tourism Board’s Tokyo office.

Another strategy some have employed with an eye to Japan’s gift-giving culture is a bit of, well, subtle bribery. Nepal and Guam both plan all-expenses-paid trips for Japanese travel agents and the media.

Hawaii and Guam, meanwhile, are issuing cards that provide visitors sizable discounts with airlines, hotels and retailers. Guam’s is called “Guambarre”--a play on the Japanese expression “Go for it!”

Tourism officials, reeling from 750,000 overseas cancellations by Japanese since Sept. 11, aren’t the only ones worried. Blanket travel bans imposed by Japanese companies are frustrating efforts to expand business ties as well. Even North Carolina’s ace in the hole--the famous Pinehurst golf resort--hasn’t been enough to persuade golf-crazy Japanese to leave home.

“It’s a beautiful time to be playing golf,” says Emily Felt, a state investment representative here. “Business continues these days, but it’s all by paper and e-mail. In the end, it’s the face-to-face contact, plus the 18 holes, that close the deal.”

Although government advisories and scary headlines are most of the problem, tourist officials say culture also is a factor. Japanese tend to steer a far wider course around even the smallest hint of danger than do people of many other nationalities.

Shigeaki Nida, an executive with the Risk Managers and Consultants Assn. of Japan, says Japanese are not very good at weighing risks, tending instead to just run the other way.

“In the Japanese mentality, there’s an idea of looking only at beautiful things and completely avoiding anything unpleasant,” says Zenji Katagata, president of System Research Center, a risk consultant. “Since you’re a small kid, your mother tells you to just stay away from danger, without teaching you how to measure it or handle it.”

Experts add that the country’s long, isolated history leaves most Japanese convinced, rightfully, that home is quite safe. But it also plants the idea among some that the rest of the world is inherently unsafe.

Another factor, tourism officials say, is Japan’s group culture. Even if individuals are willing to go somewhere, people all around them discourage it, and more often than not the consensus wins out.

“If your friends and family are canceling trips overseas, they say, ‘I should too,’ ” says Marjorie Dewey, chairwoman of the Assn. of National Tourism Offices Representatives, an umbrella organization for the various foreign promotion groups in Japan.

The association plans to file a formal protest with the Japanese government over its danger rating system. In fact, Japan itself arguably fell victim. The government issued a warning telling Japanese to avoid all destinations with a U.S. military presence. South Korea, the second-most popular overseas destination for Japanese travelers after the U.S., was immediately hammered. But so was Okinawa, one of the nation’s poorest prefectures and home base for about 25,000 U.S. troops. A total of 126,364 people on 543 school trips immediately canceled. The government is now doing its own promotion in a bid to encourage travel to Okinawa.

Travel promoters hope that the gloom will lift relatively soon, Japan will ease its advisories, and people will get back in the travel mood.

Egypt, however, may provide a lesson in how long this could take. Several years after terrorists massacred tourists near the pyramids, including Japanese, the country is just beginning to get back to square one. “It’s taken three or four years,” says the embassy’s Uehara.

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Rie Sasaki in The Times’ Tokyo Bureau contributed to this report.