Waikiki's ongoing revitalization and Hawai'i's unique culture will be the focus of a new $8 million state marketing plan which aims to reverse a recent decline in Japanese visitors.

The campaign, unveiled by Hawai'i Tourism Japan yesterday, shares similar features with last year's campaign, which highlighted running, romance, hula and other familiar Hawai'i activities. However, this year's plan will depart from recent campaigns by featuring Japanese actress Mayumi Sada. The face of Hawai'i's Japan marketing effort for the last three years has been 'ukulele virtuoso Jake Shima-bukuro.

Through November, Japanese visitor arrivals were down nearly 9 percent. Takashi Ichikura, executive director for Hawai'i Tourism Japan, pegged the decline on available airline seats from Japan to Hawai'i, rising fuel surcharges, rising hotel charges and a weakening of the Japanese yen. Hawai'i Tourism Japan was hired by the Hawaii Tourism Authority to promote Hawai'i in Japan.

"With the rising fuel surcharge and other cost factors, Hawai'i now looks expensive in Japanese consumers' eyes, and they expect Hawai'i to be a refined and sophisticated destination to match the price they are paying," Ichikura said. "It is also important to communicate that Hawai'i offers events and festivals in which the visitors can participate as well as many attractive features that are authentic to Hawai'i and at the same time still not known to the Japanese.

"And particularly with the Waikiki revitalization project ongoing, we must also communicate that Hawai'i is constantly evolving to change the consumers' perception of Hawai'i being a destination that is always there, unchanging, therefore, there's no need to go there now."

Several redevelopment projects are upgrading the face of Waikiki, including Outrigger Enterprises Group's Waikiki Beach Walk project and Kamehameha Schools' renovation of the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.

Despite the drop in Japanese visitors, Hawai'i remains the top preferred travel destination among Japanese, Ichikura said. Japanese visitors remain an important segment of Hawai'i's $12 billion tourism trade in part because they typically spend more money than other visitors. Fortunately for Hawai'i, the recent decline in arrivals from Japan has been partly offset by a rise in domestic visitors, who have become a larger segment of Hawai'i's tourism industry.

Last year's decline in Japanese visitor arrivals followed two consecutive years of growth. Reversing that slide hinges on convincing Japanese that Hawai'i is worth the higher cost of admission, said Frank Haas, vice president of tourism and marketing for the Hawaii Tourism Authority. That includes targeting older, more savvy travelers who already may have visited Hawai'i at least once.

"We need to convince people that Hawai'i is still a place worth spending more money on than in the past," Haas said. "Just selling Hawai'i as a beach, which we haven't done for a while, is something that just isn't going to work."

The effort to woo Japanese travelers will get a boost this spring with a voyage by the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule'a, which is expected to visit eight Japanese ports. Several Japanese magazines and TV shows are planning to cover the trip.

"At the same time, Hawai'i tourism will benefit from this voyage, which reminds the Japanese people of Hawai'i and of the close ties we have with Hawai'i," Ichikura said.

Shimabukuro, known for his frenetic 'ukulele stylings, will play a more limited role in the advertising campaign. Instead, the campaign will focus on Sada, who has acted in recent Japanese films "Henshin" and "Masked Rider: The First" and in the TV series "Hana Yori Dango," according to the Internet Movie Database.

The campaign, called "Discover Aloha," is meant to depict a female visitor who experiences the feeling of aloha through various encounters that could only happen in Hawai'i. The effort includes two posters featuring hula and lei-making, and another showing Sada reflecting on her Hawai'i experiences from a lanai overlooking the ocean.

TV commercials will feature the song "Discover Aloha," which was written by local entertainer Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom.

Dentsu, a major Tokyo-based advertising firm, took over the Japan tourism marketing contract for Hawai'i on Jan. 1, 2004, displacing the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau.

The agency formed the nonprofit Hawai'i Tourism Japan to carry out the state contract.

Just how Japanese react to the new campaign remains to be seen. The number of Japanese visitors to Hawai'i is expected to essentially remain flat this year, according to the University of Hawai'i Economic Research Organization.

High fuel and room costs are likely to continue to constrain Japanese visitor arrivals this year, said Akio Hoshino, senior vice president of travel agency JALPAK International Hawaii, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines.

"We expect it to be more or less the same, but there is a chance to increase," said Hoshino, who attended a presentation of the marketing plan at the Hawai'i Convention Center yesterday.

Changing the face of the campaign from Shimabukuro — an increasingly popular entertainer in Japan — to Sada may help, Hoshino said.

"Changing sometimes is a good thing, and it could be good for Hawai'i," he said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.