Luring Japanese to Nevada takes cultural understanding

By Richard N. Velotta LAS VEGAS SUN

TOKYO -- It was a simple request. I needed an electrical adapter.

Every electrical outlet in my room at the New Otani in Tokyo would accommodate two prongs. I had brought a laptop computer to write stories for the Sun during Gov. Bob Miller's visit to Japan earlier this month. The computer had a third prong for a ground wire.

Fortunately for me, the New Otani is a hotel that has seen its share of Americans. Whenever I picked up the phone, I was greeted in English.

"This is Mr. Velotta in Room 1178. Does the housekeeping staff or the business center have a three-pronged electrical adapter I could borrow?"

"Yes sir."

"Uh, should I come down for it?"

"It will be brought to your room."

"Oh, thank you. Thank you very much."

But after waiting about an hour, I realized that somehow my message hadn't gotten through.

I tried again without success, then finally discovered the only three-prong outlet in my room. It was the first -- and hopefully the last -- time I've ever composed a story in the bathroom.

The next day, I decided to try again, using the face-to-face approach. I took the cord in case I needed to pantomime my request.

The concierge took one look and said in flawless English, "Oh, you need an adapter."

She got on the phone, forwarded my request in Japanese, then turned to me and said, "Someone will be up to your room with an adapter in a couple minutes."

Sure enough, help arrived. A bellman brought four different adapters and I was quickly able to find a match and get set up at my in-room desk. I wanted to tip the guy, but that's something you don't do in Japan. It's considered an insult.

The language barrier works in both directions. When Japan Airlines scheduled a news conference to announce its nonstop service to Las Vegas, it issued a news release explaining the new attractions on the city's horizon. The JAL release discussed the construction of the Bellagio hotel-casino, Mirage Resort Inc.'s $1.8 billion property due to open in October. Only it came out "Beluga," a type of whale.

My experience with the electrical adapter reminded me of a story I first heard in Taipei years ago.

"A man who speaks three languages is trilingual," a Taiwanese friend who spoke at least three languages told me. "A man who speaks two languages is bilingual.

"And a man who speaks one language," he said with a grin, "is an American."

Many of my acquaintances speak more than one language -- Spanish is the most common second tongue -- but most people I know are as inadequate as I am when it comes to communicating in Japanese.

It got me to thinking about an interesting situation: A number of behind-the-scenes negotiators have spent years working to get direct air service between Tokyo and Las Vegas. Then, when the deal was on the verge of being done, the governor rode into town and threw out a big welcome mat on behalf of Las Vegas with the hope that by doing so, the Japanese would respond with an official announcement.

Miller said on many occasions that deals with Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines were all but done and that a high-level visit could seal them.

It worked. When Miller met with executives of All Nippon earlier this month, they announced that two charters would fly from Nagoya to Las Vegas this summer. Then, a day later, JAL conducted its huge news conference to announce twice-a-week nonstop flights between Tokyo and Las Vegas.

There was a bonus attached: JAL's flights won't be on the same day as Northwest Airlines' twice-a-week trips. That means McCarran International Airport will have arrivals directly from Tokyo every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

JAL, obviously sold on Las Vegas as a destination but not a point of origination, will route its Boeing 747 through Los Angeles on the return flight. The flights begin Oct. 2 while Northwest already is flying the route.

A Northwest spokeswoman said it's too early to tell how well the Tokyo-to-Las Vegas flight is doing.

"We need about three months to determine how well a route will do," said Kathleen Peach, manager of media relations for Northwest. "But we're happy with the early indications."

Northwest had projected flights would be 80 percent full of paying customers by the time marketing efforts had taken hold. Passengers on Northwest's June flights said the planes have been a little more than half full. By the time Northwest gets its three-month lead time, JAL will be on the verge of kicking off its service.

Peach said that while JAL will be a competitor, the Tokyo-based carrier will add awareness to the route, helping both airlines as well as Las Vegas.

All Nippon's Nagoya charters have the potential of developing a second market within Japan, another bonus that came out of the Miller trip.

The second half of Miller's expedition, to Taiwan, wasn't nearly as successful, but it got Las Vegas' foot in the door with two major air carriers serving Taipei. Spreading the word about Nevada on an international scale is a lot of what Miller will do in the remaining months of his term. He also is considering trade and tourism missions to Europe and South America before the end of the year.

How much of a difference does a direct international flight mean? Las Vegas Councilman Arnie Adamsen, a frequent Asian traveler on Sister City missions, returned to Las Vegas on Northwest's nonstop flight.

"It was great," Adamsen said. "I cleared (U.S.) Customs and Immigration in 15 minutes."

That's unusual. Travelers who use Los Angeles or San Francisco as a gateway often get snagged in long lines for Customs and Immigration. Travel planners recommend a minimum two-hour layover there to make connections to other U.S. destinations. The lines are long because dozens of international flights enter those two airports every day. But Las Vegas has about a dozen a week.

Harry Kassap, coordinator of air-service development at McCarran, said it's extraordinary that Las Vegas has been able to secure the nonstop flights. It's one of the few cities not serving as an airline hub to have such flights.

So now that Miller has extended the invitation and two airlines are providing the ride -- possibly with a third joining them if All Nippon's charter experiment turns into regular service -- will the Japanese come? And is Las Vegas ready for them?

Miller's goal is to double 1997's total of 792,000 visitors to Las Vegas from the Pacific Rim in 10 years.

It's one thing to throw open our doors to Japan and the rest of Asia, but it's another to be a word-of-mouth success or a destination to which visitors will return.

For Las Vegas to fly as a key destination for Asians, a number of hurdles must be cleared:

* Language barriers. While many Americans have mastered some of the Western languages, Japanese, Chinese and other Asian dialects remain a mystery. The Clark County School District and UNLV offer some Asian language programs that aren't nearly as popular as Spanish, French and German.

Randy Walker, Clark County's director of aviation, said McCarran is in the process of adding signs in other languages to make foreign visitors more comfortable. It's evident in Tokyo that English is a more prominent second language there than Japanese is in the United States. Many signs all over the city are in English as well as Japanese, even in business establishments. Tourists who don't understand Japanese can get around Tokyo on the subways with relative ease because place names are spelled out with an English translation.

Alan Feldman, a spokesman for Mirage Resorts Inc., said most literature in the company's hotel rooms is offered in several languages, including Japanese.

He also said the Mirage and most of the other major hotels in the city have multilingual employees on staff who can be called on act as translators for Asian visitors.

Feldman said Mirage properties have benefited from Asian tourism for 20 years, so the state's new emphasis on drawing more people from there may not be as significant to his company, which operates offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong to cultivate visits from high-rollers.

A smaller property that caters to Japanese tourists is the Hotel San Remo, owned by Japanese businessman Sukeaki Izumi. Rachel Hauben, a spokeswoman for the property, said the San Remo's Ristorante Dei Fiori is the only one in the city to offer Japanese cuisine 24 hours a day. She said the property also is the only one to offer gaming lessons in Japanese.

* The economy. Depending on to whom you talk, the Asian economy is poised either to turn the corner toward full recovery or is in the first phase of a long-term recession.

The U.S. Embassy staff in Tokyo, in a briefing with the governor, said Japan's economic fortunes would shift for the better within six months as Japan's federal government grapples with financial reforms and deregulation.

During the governor's entire stay in Tokyo, the devaluation of the yen against the U.S. dollar was front-page news. Analysts, for the first time, referred to the economic downturn as a recession and speculated about how Japan, the region's economic leader, could either prop up the rest of Asia or drag it down further.

Feldman said Japan's economy has always persevered, so Mirage is expecting tourists to come back. Per capita, Japan always has had one of the highest percentages of international travelers, he said.

Hauben added that even though the economy has been shaky in the past few months, the tourism sector has not been greatly affected.

But an American computer executive living in Tokyo had a different opinion. Scott Kahn, director of sales development in Asia and the Pacific for Autodesk Ltd., said it may take years for Japan to dig itself out of its current recession and several companies are bracing themselves by reducing budgets to ride out the storm.

* The culture. Language is a tough barrier to bridge, but closing the cultural gap could be more important.

Adamsen is a big advocate of Sister City programs, noting that the one-to-one contact is critical to building relationships with Asians.

"Many people don't understand," Adamsen said in Tokyo, "that you need to build a relationship in order to work with them."

His long-range goal goes beyond the scope of tourism. Adamsen hopes to organize a business seminar about Las Vegas for Japanese investors within three months. Adamsen feels the current state of the economy should work to his benefit.

"They're looking for more value for the dollar," Adamsen said. "That's something that we're known for, value. And as far as going now, when the economy is bad, you always remember the people who visited you when you were in the hospital, not when you're well."

Developing business ties and the potential for conventions is another component in the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's strategy to fill the 20,000 new rooms that will come on line within three years. Adamsen figures that generating some of it from the international marketplace will build not only tourism relationships with Asia but business relationships as well.

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