TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Hawaiian Airlines (HA) plans to start the Kansai/Honolulu route from July this year. For the airline, it will be the third route in Asia following the Haneda/Honolulu and the Seoul/Honolulu. Aircraft to be put into service will be Boeing B767-300ER configured with 18 Business and 246 Economy class seats, offering, annually, approximately 100,000 passenger seats. The airline is also eyeing introduction of larger aircraft, a 294-seater Airbus A330-200.

Hawaiian Airlines started its services from Tokyo’s Haneda and from Seoul’s Incheon only in November 2010 and in January 2011 respectively. Commenting on the Haneda route, Mark Dunkerley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hawaiian Airlines, said, “Our new service to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport has received an overwhelming response from the market.” With regards to Kansai Airport, Dunkerley added, the airline expects to attract travel demand not only from the Kansai region but also transit traffic demand from cities within Japan and from Asia including China and South Korea as well. The airline emphasized that customers will profit from the same day connections that will also be readily available for domestic flights within Japan.

Global Service, a general sales agent for Hawaiian Airlines, has no sales office based in the Kansai region. Meanwhile, however, it reportedly started to review its sales system. The date of ticket sales will be announced in a few days.

Hawaiian Airlines Kansai/Honolulu Flight Schedule

(HA449 operates from July 12 and HA450 from July 13)

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Hawaiian Airlines (HA) launched its first flight from Tokyo’s Haneda to Honolulu on November 19. On the occasion of the inaugural flight, Mark B. Dunkerley, President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Airlines visited Japan. During an interview by the Travel Vision News, he said, “The first flight from Haneda was booked up to full capacity. We expect to achieve an average seat load factor of 80 percent for the next several weeks, which is satisfactory for a new airline entering the market. Dunkerley indicated the airline’s strategy to expand sales in the Japan market in partnership with travel agencies, citing, “The travel agencies are our best business partners.” At present, the agency sales account for 80 percent to 90 percent of the airline’s total turnover in Japan. Also in the future, it intends to promote its branding and conduct a marketing survey within Japan to determine the customer needs through the Japanese travel agencies.

In terms of the mid and long-term plan of its route network expansion, Hawaiian Airlines regards its Haneda/Honolulu route as the first step to enter into the Asian market, thus considering that Japan is the airline’s key market within Asia. Having originally applied for two daily flights between Haneda and Honolulu, it anticipates increasing the flight frequency also in the future, said Dunkerley. Besides its Haneda route, Hawaiian also eyes the possibility of operating from other Japanese airports. However, he said, there are a number of airlines operating between Japan and Hawaii. Realizing that the competition with its rival airlines will “never be easy,” Dunkerley said, “We would like to extol our customer service capitalizing on our genuine brand of Hawaiian-style service and also our excellent network serving the other Hawaiian Islands besides Honolulu.”

In efforts to enhance its market presence in Japan, Hawaiian Airlines aims for a market approach via the travel agencies and also for a tie-up promotion with Hawaii Tourism Japan (HTJ). The airline also expects to rely on word-of-mouth advertizing by its customers who have actually flown Hawaiian Airlines to Hawaii, added Dunkerley.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

On the occasion of his recent visit to Japan, Milton Sgarbi, General Manager, St. Regis Princeville Resort on Kauai Island in Hawaii, gave an interview to the Travel Vision News on its future prospects in the Japanese travel market.

Sgarbi said, “We must first start to improve the brand recognition of St. Regis hotels by the Japanese travel agencies.” St. Regis hotels’ customer segment is the wealthy people, he said, and since the accommodations are quite expensive, the customers come up with various inquiries about details of the products and services to be rendered. The General Manager does expect the Japanese travel agencies to share the product knowledge to promote and sell St. Regis hotels. For this reason he told the Travel Vision News that he presently focuses on giving the product and service information to the Japanese travel agencies, appealing what St. Regis hotels offer to Japanese customers, adding that he will continue to provide the Japanese travel agencies with the update on the products and services and, in the future, will also plan to give a seminar for the Japanese travel industry.

The St. Regis Osaka is newly opened in October this year. Sgarbi of St. Regis Princeville Resort sees the opening as an excellent opportunity to make St. Regis hotel brand better known to the Japanese market. St. Regis Osaka is the first establishment in Japan with St. Regis hotel brand. By further improving its market recognition for Japanese customers not yet familiar with St. Regis hotels, Sgarbi said, he is hopeful that Japanese customers will find it easier to come and stay at St. Regis Princeville Resort on the Island of Kauai in Hawaii.

Currently, a high-class clientele from the mainland US market accounts for roughly 95 percent of the total guests at St. Regis Princeville Resort. Japanese guests are, on the other hand, merely two to three percent of the total guests. With the start of Hawaiian Airlines’ (HA) new service from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Honolulu, the flight schedules to Hawaii will be further improved and more Japanese travelers will hopefully travel to the Hawaiian Islands, said Sgarbi, showing his expectation for the Japanese market to further grow. Besides, high value of Japanese yen and Japanese economy heading for recovery should be a contributor to boost Japanese visitors to Hawaii, he added.

Renovation had started at St. Regis Princeville Resort back in 2008 and, with the investment of one million US dollars (approximately 83,290,000 yen), the entire renovation of the hotel establishment including the guest rooms and the golf courses was completed and reopened on October 1, 2009 as the first St. Regis hotel operating in Hawaii. The hotel’s previous European interiors were completely redesigned with contemporary Hawaiian concept to accentuate the authentic atmosphere of the Islands of Hawaii. Halelea Spa is newly opened as well. St. Regis Princeville Resort has 201 Standard rooms, 41 Junior Suites and 10 Suites, totaling 252 guest rooms. Butler service is available exclusively for the guests staying in the junior suites and the suites. Two Japanese concierges are also there to attend Japanese guests and in the future, as the Japanese overseas travel market further grows, St. Regis Princeville Resort plans to increase the number of Japanese-speaking staff, Sgarbi told the Travel Vision News.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.