A Big Pitch for Japanese Tourists

When the Dodgers introduced their newest team members earlier this month, the usual throng of reporters and fans were there--along with a horde of 40 Japanese tour operators. They snapped pictures and fetched autographs of Kazuhisa Ishii and Hideo Nomo, sizing them up for a lot more than 90-mph fastballs.

In their minds, the soft-spoken Ishii and well-known Nomo may be just what it takes to help lure wary Japanese visitors back to California this year.

“If it plays out the way we’re hoping, baseball will be our savior in this tourism slump,” said Ko Ueno, director of Japanese travel for the California Division of Tourism, noting that Japan attaches rock-star status to its players in the U.S. “If anything can get the Japanese visitors back here quickly, it will be baseball. It could make a big, big difference in that market’s recovery.”

In Japan, travel officials said baseball could very well help soothe consumer jitters about traveling to America. Haruko Komiya, a 28-year-old resident of Tokyo, said she traded a trip to the U.S. for Hong Kong over the holidays, but is feeling better about traveling now--especially with Ishii beckoning.

“Seeing Ishii go to the Dodgers is great,” Komiya said. “It might be another good reason to go to Los Angeles.”

The Japanese have been, by far, the biggest tourist group to California; more than a million visitors spent an estimated $1.2 billion in 2000.

But last year, after Sept. 11, travel to the United States from Japan dropped more than 50%. The Japanese are said to be particularly risk-averse travelers, and their slow return has been felt at theme parks, hotels, restaurants and shops throughout Southern California.

“They are just beginning to test the water again, but only with one toe,” said Ueno. “They’re not ready to jump in all the way yet.”

Some airlines are starting to add service between Los Angeles and Japan--Japan Airlines, for example, will go from eight flights to 10 beginning Friday--but the overall number of flights are still way down. The U.S. Commerce Department says Japan visitation to the U.S. may not return to its 2000 numbers until late 2005.

Walt Disney Co. officials said the drop-off in Japanese and other international tourists is continuing to hurt attendance at theme parks. And places like the Desert Hills Premium Outlets near Palm Springs, which relies heavily on overseas tourists, said the number of Japanese groups in 2002 is no better than 25% what it was a year ago.

“There are some signs that things are improving, and we’re getting a few more tours coming in each week than even last month,” said Scott Georges, marketing director at the New Otani hotel in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.

*

Downturn Forces Some Austerity Measures

The 434-room hotel relies on Japanese visitors for more than half of its total guests, Georges said, but occupancy is hovering at just 50%. Recently the hotel cut its restaurant hours, let go of the piano player in the lobby and replaced fresh flower arrangements with artificial look-alikes. “It’s still very slow,” he said. “Very quiet.”

Which is why Japanese tour operators are buzzing about Ishii, who signed a $12-million contract with the Dodgers this month, and Nomo, who has rejoined the team after playing here several years ago, and who in his debut with the Dodgers in 1995 created “Nomo-mania” here and in Japan.

Perhaps nowhere are the spring hopes as high as in Little Tokyo, which has been devastated by the loss of Japanese tourists. Koji Tanaka, who manages a clothing boutique in the Onizuka Plaza, said he’ll support any attempt to get people shopping again.

Although he just opened Zin Design in January, Tanaka has already seen at least three businesses close down around him, including a coffee shop, a jewelry store and a minimarket. On a recent weekday lunch hour, he glanced at the boarded-up windows and vacant sidewalks that snake through the courtyard, and frowned.

“We opened at the wrong time, and maybe in the wrong location,” Tanaka said. “If something can be done to bring back the customers, I would be grateful.”

Jason Lee, who manages the Shinyodo & Hollywood Shop in the Japanese Village Plaza, said he can hardly wait for the baseball season. Seven years ago, when Nomo first splashed onto the scene with the Dodgers, Lee said his business swelled at least 25%. Nowadays most of his customers are local--and their wallets are thin, he said.

“I’m waiting it out, like I always do,” said Lee, who sells designer purses, jewelry and souvenirs. “When I talk to some of the Japanese tourists who do come in, they are hopeful. So I’m hopeful too.”

The tour operators who descended on Dodger Stadium two weeks ago wanted to meet Ishii and formulate package deals for Japanese visitors that include one or two Dodger games in Los Angeles and a swing through San Francisco, Orange County or San Diego. The baseball games will be broadcast live in Japan.

Yukio Fujimoto, general manager of the Japan Travel Bureau in Los Angeles, said all the hype may help bring Japanese tourism to within 65% of what it was last spring and 90% by summer’s end.

“What we need to do is show Japan that things are back to normal now and they should come to California,” said Fujimoto, whose company is the largest organizer of Japanese leisure travelers to Los Angeles.

“How much more normal can you get than baseball?”

*

Marketing Plan Will Be Put Into Play

For further reassurance, the Japan Travel Bureau in Tokyo said it plans to start promoting West Coast destinations, hopefully in a partnership with the public and private sectors.

“Trips to the U.S. West Coast are already discounted so much, we can’t go any lower,” said spokesman Tsuneo Nishiyama. “So we’re trying to promote a Major League Baseball tour.”

Tourist officials also have launched a promotion in Japan in which 50 couples can win all-expense-paid trips to California in April--providing they answer a short quiz (the answers spell out C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A) and their entry is plucked from a drawing. So far, 10,000 entries have been turned in to the 1,300 members of the Japanese Assn. of Travel Agents.

“We’ve started a campaign to publicize comments by people who’ve gone” to the United States, said Junko Yoshida, a spokeswoman at HIS Travel Agency in Tokyo. “Things like, ‘It was really inexpensive,’ or ‘It was much safer than I thought,’ or even ‘New Yorkers are starting to get on with their ordinary lives again.’ These give people reassurance.”

And Ishii, for his part, may be helping the state’s tourism industry without even knowing it. At the introductory news conference two weeks ago, the 28-year-old gushed about why he chose the Dodgers: “There is good weather and golf courses here ... because I am a Californian.”

Tourism officials swooned.

“Atta boy,” exclaimed Ueno. “You go.”

*

Harris reported from Los Angeles and Magnier from Tokyo.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

California: A Global Tourist Stop

More than 1 million Japanese visitors spent $1.2 billion in California in 2000, making them the largest group of overseas tourists in terms of numbers and money. Shown are the latest figures available:

International visitors to California in millions of travelers; volume does not include travelers from Mexico or Canada: ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 5.0 6.0 6.4 6.0 6.2 6.4 * Top overseas travelers to California in 2000, by country * Country/region Expenditures Visitors Japan $1.2 billion 1,106,000 South Korea 740 million 419,000 South America 699 million 342,000 Britain 641 million 766,000 Germany 353 million 394,000 France 327 million 330,000 * Note: Expenditure figures do not include air transportation and travel arrangements. Source: California Division of Tourism Graphic: DORIS SHIELDS / Los Angeles Times