THE PACKAGED TOURIST: A JAPANESE AND AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

Japan Travel Bureau recently reported that 48.7% of Japanese oversea travelers, in 2008, were part of a packaged tour, while 47.7% arranged their own travel. Interestingly, very little is actually known regarding demographic and consumption differences between Japanese packaged and independent tourists, especially regarding their shopping behaviors, or how Japanese -package tourists differ from another segment, such as packaged tourists from America. The objective of this article is to address this chasm by exploring demographic and consumption differences between, and among, Japanese and American packaged and non-packaged tourists who are vacationing in Honolulu, Hawaii. The sample includes 198 and 127 Japanese independent and packaged tourists, respectively, as well as 383 and 76 American independent and packaged tourists, respectively.