JTB Hawaii has turned 50 — but there’s no slowing down for the company, which built a bridge between Japan and Hawaii with the opening of its first Honolulu offices in 1964.

From its roots as the first Japanese travel company to establish a presence in the islands, JTB Hawaii Inc. has continued evolving into a full-fledged destination management company offering an array of travel, tour and ground transportation services as well as golf and entertainment tours, merchandising, web publishing and more.

Recently JTB Hawaii has been working to expand its reach globally, increasing efforts in emerging markets like China, Korea and Australia.

The company’s role in Hawaii tourism is so entrenched that members of Hawaii’s visitor industry joined Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Wednesday in proclaiming Oct. 1 as JTB Day in Hawaii. Later that day, a crowd also turned out for the company’s debut of its new JTB Travel Plaza in the Waikiki Shopping Center.

"Fifty years ago today JTB became the first Japan travel company to establish an office in Hawaii," Abercrombie said during the event in his office. "You had the vision to build the bridge from Hawaii to Japan and back as a pioneer in this respect that is another reason that we are happy to have you here today.

"We know that JTB serves more than 300,000 visitors a year now. I don’t know if the vision was that great 50 years ago, but that’s a remarkable achievement," Abercrombie said.

Hiroyuki Takahashi, president and CEO of JTB Hawaii’s 102-year-old parent JTB Corp., expressed his appreciation for the honor during the ceremony.

"It is because of your support that JTB Hawaii is able to celebrate its 50th anniversary," Takahashi said. "Hawaii has always been an essential part of our business. Moving ahead of the curve, we positioned an expatriate in Hawaii in June of 1964, then opened a brand on Oct. 1. Since then, we have been able to introduce Hawaii, an exceptional destination with a beautiful nature and kind-hearted people, to many visitors. We have continued to take initiatives to ensure that everyone can experience how amazing Hawaii is for themselves."

Last year the company handled 430,000 arrivals from Japan to Hawaii, said Tsukasa Harufuku, JTB Hawaii’s president and CEO. JTB Hawaii was responsible for bringing 28 percent of the nearly 1.52 million total visitors from Japan to Hawaii in 2013. In comparison, Harufuku said JTB’s closest competitor, HIS, brought about 330,000 visitors from Japan to Hawaii last year.

While the second half of this year, particularly October, November and December, is shaping up nicely for the Japan market, Harufuku said JTB has downgraded its expectations for 2014 to 420,000 Japanese arrivals. The drop is due to an increase in the consumption tax in Japan and decreased buying power from a less favorable yen-dollar exchange rate.

Hawaii’s visitor industry and the Japan Association of Travel Agents set a goal of growing arrivals from Japan to Hawaii to 2 million by 2016, but they are far from hitting that target.

"This year the number of visitors to Hawaii from Japan will be 1.5 million, so 2 million in 2016 is unreachable I think, but nobody knows. We are trying hard to get there," said Akio Hoshino, corporate officer and operating officer of community relations for JTB Hawaii.

Increased competition and increased tour package prices due to higher fuel surcharges, airfares and hotel room rates have made it tougher to sell Japanese visitors packages to Hawaii, said Masato Tezuka, president of the board of directors for JTB Hawaii Travel LLC.

"Oahu is doing very good, but the outer islands are more challenging because the package tours are facing a very tough period," Tezuka said. "Tour prices have gone up sharply compared to last year."

While tourism from Japan to Hawaii peaked at 2.21 million visitors in 1997, Hoshino said JTB is committed to helping the destination continue to recover.

This April, inside the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, JTB Hawaii opened an additional Luana Lounge, which provides continental breakfasts, drinks and snacks as well as a place to pass the time while waiting for rooms to be ready or to leave for the airport. The company also operates club lounges inside the Sheraton Waikiki, The Royal Hawaiian hotel and the Westin Moana Surfrider.

"We have invested a lot in Hawaii," said Hoshino, adding that over the years the company’s infrastructure, service investments, and community stewardship as a sponsor of events like the annual Honolulu Festival have been in the millions.

The company, which employs 730 or so workers at its offices and transportation facilities throughout the islands, will continue to invest in the destination.

In addition to the opening of the Travel Plaza in the Waikiki Shopping Plaza last week, JTB is planning to expand its OliOli transportation line, which already has two trolleys in Maui and 15 on Oahu.

Mike McCartney, president and CEO of Hawaii Tourism Authority, praised JTB as a company that wasn’t afraid to explore untapped horizons in 1964 and in doing so set the course for Hawaii to welcome inbound travelers from Japan.

"They started it. They were the risk takers. Because of them, we’ve had great success and many have followed," McCartney said. "There’s a saying in Japanese, ‘Okage sama de,’ it means I am what I am because of you. That saying applies when we talk about JTB’s contributions to establishing Japanese visitors as our top international market."

While interest in Hawaii has been there from the start, the company’s early days had their own challenges. For starters, Takahashi said the company’s entry into Hawaii was limited to the country’s most affluent travelers since the exchange rate at the time was 300 yen per dollar.

"The first group of 23 Japanese visitors who came to Hawaii on JTB paid $3,500 per person for package that included a Pan Am flight and hotels," Takahashi said. That’s the equivalent of $26,854 today.

"At the time, the average wages of a Japanese worker were about $600 a month," he said.

JTB introduced its popular LOOK package tours in 1968 when jumbo jets came on the scene, he said. However, according to Takahashi, travel to Hawaii didn’t open up to the masses until 1985 when a more favorable yen-to-dollar ratio came into effect. By the mid 1990s, Hawaii had become the top choice of Japan travelers. However, Hoshino said the numbers began to drop as additional competition from destinations like Southeast Asia, Guam, Okinawa, Taiwan, Hainan Island, China and Europe emerged, sometimes offering newer accommodations, better service and greater ease of access, and often for less money.

For instance, JTB’s average package tour price to Hawaii was $2,150 through March of this year. While pricing for Hawaii LOOK packages is lower than the $3,227 typically paid by Japanese travelers going to Europe, it’s much higher than the $956 average package price for Japanese travelers to visit Asia and the $1,066 average package price that they pay to go to Guam.

"Hawaii is still a premium price so it’s very important to continue to add value — we cannot stop," Tezuka said by way of explaining the company’s continued commitment and investment in the isles.