Okinawa steps up to take on Bali and Phuket

While Okinawa is often called the Hawaii of Japan, a changing Asian travelscape driven by low-cost airline carriers is seeing the resort destination attract a rising number of regional tourists.

Last year, arrivals hit 9.84 million which is now elevating the market to the likes Asia’s twin icons’ Bali and Phuket.

Summing up the current shift in trends is C9 Hotelworks new Okinawa Hotel Market Review with key catalysts of change being rising airlift, visa exemptions for a number of Asian countries including Thailand and favorable currency exchange rates to the Japanese yen.

International airlift is delivering more and more overseas travelers, in 2018 domestic routes supplied 71% of the visitors to the destination. Good news this year is that traction has remained strong as year-to-date arrivals through May registered 4.6% growth. Key overseas markets are South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China and the United States.

Market-wide occupancy for hotels in the latest available data was 64% with an average accommodation spend per person, per day registered at approximately USD218. With over 36,000 hotel and ryokan keys, the current pipeline is showing 5,295 keys under development.

Key incoming brands reflect more global brands including Hilton and Four Seasons. The latter is being developed by Malaysia’s Berjaya Group, fresh from an extremely successful project in Kyoto. Berjaya is again set to leverage the Four Seasons brand on a hotel residence component of the project.

Despite high development costs given pressure from the upcoming run up to the Olympics, Okinawa’s resort trajectory remains strongly positive given the current expansion at Naha Airport.