The latest crop of Japanese visitors brought to Hawaii by Unagi Travel obviously don’t believe in waxing prior to a beach stop.
While sunning on Waikiki Beach, they sported tufts galore. There were hairy green ones, velvety soft red ones, yellow yarn ones, brown furry ones, electric blue ones and rainbow-colored ones — that’s because Unagi’s visitor source market is made up entirely of stuffed toys.
The company, which launched about three years ago in Akasaka, Tokyo, recently chose Hawaii as its first international destination. For approximately $120 plus some shipping costs, owners can travel vicariously through their cute fabric friends. Since last fall the company has made three trips to Hawaii, including the latest stuffed-animal vacation: a three-night, five-day stay that ended Nov. 1.
"This travel agency will take stuffed animals on a trip for those who cannot travel because of having a busy life, a health condition or any other reasons, and update pictures on their Facebook live, so people can see what their stuffed animals are doing, and can feel the atmosphere of taking a vacation," said Seijun Hata, a local travel coordinator for Unagi Travel.
On the first day of this particular trip, Hata checked 16 stuffed-animal guests into the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. They visited Iolani Palace, sunbathed on Waikiki Beach and dined at Tropics.
They kicked off the second day with malasadas at Leonard’s Bakery and trips to Zippy’s, Makapuu, Haleiwa’s Surf N Sea and Matsumoto Shave Ice, and Kualoa Ranch, where they participated in a Halloween costume contest. On their third day they visited Sea Life Park, attended the Monster Mash Pumpkin Palooza at Hilton Hawaiian Village and went on an Atlantis dinner cruise. Before checking out on their fourth day, they walked through Waikiki and dined at Eggs ‘n Things, a breakfast spot popular with Japanese visitors.
Hata said the idea for the company came from owner Sonoe Azuma’s own adventures with her stuffed eel named Unagi, the Japanese word for eel.
"In Japan many adults regard stuffed animals as special family members. Our owner loved her stuffed eel, so she traveled with Unagi and blogged about it. Soon friends began asking her if she would bring their stuffed animals when she traveled," he said.
While toy travel has been popular in Japan for some time, Hata said demand for Hawaii has created a strong international market for Unagi Travel. It’s no wonder since the stuffed charges have no complaints and are lighting up social media sites, including Facebook, with their own particular brand of charm.
"When people see the stuffed animals, we get a lot of comments. Many Japanese tourists already know what we are doing, but I get a lot of comments from people who don’t know. They say stuff like, ‘OMG. They are so cute,’" Hata said. "They want to take lot of pictures with the stuffed animals. Here in Hawaii they wanted to show them the aloha spirit."
Unagi Travel has found that like their owners, each textile toy has its own story to tell and its own memories to make. Some of the toys belong to children, but most belong to adults. All come with owner instructions detailing what the stuffed animal likes to eat and enjoys doing.
"If they don’t like the beach, we don’t take them," Hata said.
Hata said a few of the most recent toy visitors were traveling to Hawaii for owners who were too busy to go. One was taking a therapeutic journey for an owner who said she was depressed.
"She wrote that she was depressed and her stuffed animal was depressed. The owner wanted the animal to come to Hawaii to get revived again. The owner said when the animal became happy, she in turn would become happy," he said. "During the trip the owner could see the animal on Facebook. After the trip she will get about 300 images of her stuffed animal in various poses."
Hawaii tourist haunts like Hilton and Sea Life Park say they are glad to be in the pictures, which provide an opportunity to market more creatively to Japanese visitors.
"They are scheduled to come here once a month," said Valerie King, general manager of Sea Life Park. "We provided the company’s photographer and writer with annual passes to bring the stuffed animals to visit. While they are here, they take pictures at traditional locations like (the) dolphin cove. They also visit places that owners have specified. For instance, if an owner really likes penguins, they’ll go there."
While it’s hard to determine how much indirect business the stuffed animals bring to Sea Life Park, King said it’s important to find creative, cost-effective ways to tap into the lucrative Japanese market, which supplies about one-third of the park’s business.
The Japanese market is down at Sea Life Park, as it is at other isle attractions. Through September, visitor arrivals from Japan to Hawaii had fallen 1 percent to nearly 1.12 million visitors. Likewise, spending had dropped by 10 percent to $1.6 billion. However, while the overall market might be struggling, the stuffed-animal market is thriving.
Executives at PacRim Marketing Group and PRTech LLC said Unagi Travel has been on their radar for a few years now and is only getting hotter.
"I saw the news of the Unagi Travel on a morning news show in Tokyo last week," said Maiko Hanawa, PacRim’s senior media communications manager. "I guess it’s a new style of travel for those that are stuffed-animal enthusiasts. They have their favorite stuffed animal travel all over the world, and they virtually feel that they have traveled along with them."
Yuko Akiba, PRTech’s Web developer, client serv
