Devastation in Japan Will Abort Recovery in Travel to U.S. While it is understandably not a lead item in the news coverage of the modern day triple biblical plague—earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown—that has wreaked devastation on Japan, reports on the impact of the events on outbound tourism to the U.S. are consistent: it will end a modest recovery that began in 2010 and was projected to continue this year, with Hawaii taking the worst hit of all U.S. destinations. The Tour and Travel Buzz contacted seven leading Japanese receptive operator companies including H.I.S., JTB and NTA, as well as our Active America contacts from Delta Air Lines about cancellations and their outlook for the future. All companies reported that employees were safe, but JTB and H.I.S. had to shut down more than 20 branch offices in northeastern Japan. In the three weeks since the disaster, 15-17 percent of all group and FIT bookings for Hawaii had been cancelled. Delta had been running 90 percent load factors to beach destinations of Hawaii, Guam and Saipan for spring vacation; cancellations were in the 15-20 percent range. For the U.S. mainland, cancellations were less severe, with estimates averaging -15 percent for groups and only -5 percent for package tours and FITs. These were relatively modest cancellations when compared to the H1N1 Virus scare of May 2009 when cancellations on bookings to the U.S. were running at -50 percent.
As for future travel of any kind, bookings came to an abrupt halt for about 10 days following the quake until the nuclear threat had been controlled. Anticipated to take the biggest hit from a now-expected abrupt drop-off in traffic will be Hawaii (it garnered more than 41 percent of all Japanese visitors in 2009) and California (16 percent of 2009 visitors). Delta, as well as other carriers, temporarily halted its flights from Haneda Airport to North American destinations. Delta has reduced capacity to the mainland by 15-20 percent for at least the next quarter by using smaller aircraft. Beach destinations for spring vacations such as Hawaii, Guam and Saipan are expected to be down 25-30 percent. Operators estimate that new leisure bookings to the mainland will be down at least 15-30 percent until summer months when attitudes toward outbound travel will pick up again.
Like this:
Filed under: Destinations
