While the economy in Hawaii is obviously benefiting from a record year after tourist arrivals reached 7.4m in 2005, DFS Group is ‘deeply concerned’ at the decline in the number of Japanese visiting the islands,

according to comments attributed to Hawaii Group Vice President Sharon Weiner in the Honolulu Advertiser.
She is quoted as saying that her reaction to the drop off is ‘Terribly concerned, deeply concerned, fundamentally concerned, scared.’ This follows yet another record month for arrivals in January where Hawaii welcomed almost 600,000 visitors, but Japanese tourist arrivals fell by 7.3% to 185,802. The island?s tourism industry is now dominated by mainland US visitors who obviously spend a lot less per head than travelling Japanese.
Weiner is quoted as saying that DFS is understandably concerned ? along with boutiques operators in Hawaii – since these businesses are very dependent on Japanese tourists.