After a year of declining Japanese visitor arrivals to Hawai'i, many tourism-related companies are putting a heavier focus on Mainland tourists, who have been coming here in record numbers.

Maui Divers, which has 59 stores in Hawai'i, is increasing its advertising budget for the Mainland market by about 10 percent over last year, said president and CEO Bob Taylor.

"If there's a shift in the make-up of the visitors, we just put more emphasis on whatever the growing market is," he said, adding that Maui Divers is not reducing marketing to the Japanese. "We kind of fish where the fish are."

Japanese made up about 30 percent of Maui Divers' business a decade ago, but now represent only about 12 percent of the company's customers. Still, Taylor emphasized the company isn't abandoning the Japan market, adding that it will soon launch a Japanese language Web site.

Japanese arrivals last year were down 9.4 percent. Tourism officials largely attributed last year's decline, which followed two consecutive years of growth, to higher fuel surcharges, more expensive and fewer available hotel rooms and a decrease in scheduled airline seats from Japan to Hawai'i. Hawai'i also faces stronger competition from other destinations.

The state's tourism marketer to Japan has launched a new campaign that focuses on Waikiki's ongoing revitalization and Hawai'i's culture, but many factors hindering Japanese arrivals are largely out of the industry's control. Japanese visitor arrivals, which peaked in the 1990s, are expected to essentially remain flat this year, according to the University of Hawai'i Economic Research Organization.

To be sure, the industry is still focused on attracting more Japanese visitors, who make up about 20 percent of all tourists to Hawai'i and typically spend more money daily than other visitors.

But in the meantime, more companies are spending more marketing dollars on Mainland and other markets.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is one of them.

"Because the Japanese market has gone a little soft, we're actually allocating more of our resources towards promoting to the westbound market," said Alfred Grace, vice president of sales and marketing. The bulk of advertising dollars has long been geared toward Mainland visitors because they represent the majority of the center's customers, he said. The Japanese market makes up about 15 percent of customers, down from about 25 percent a decade ago, Grace said.

The cultural center has reduced its spending on the Japan market by about 5 to 10 percent, but Grace emphasized that it's not ignoring the Japanese. For example, he said, the center has created more cultural workshops and educational programs targeting visitors from Japan.

"It's not like we're giving up on that market; it's just that we're trying to target our resources to where we think we'll get the best return," Grace said. The cultural center is also focusing more on meetings and convention travelers as well as cruise passengers.

With the growth in domestic visitor arrivals, Ala Moana Center has also expanded its public relations efforts on the Mainland, said public relations and tourism director Matthew Derby. Ala Moana will partner for the first time with the O'ahu Visitors Bureau on a West Coast media blitz this year, he said.

Best Bridal Hawaii Inc., a wedding company which relies heavily on the Japanese, added a sales and marketing team last year to tap new markets for a wedding chapel it opened last spring at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa. The new strategy was planned before the downturn in the Japanese market but has worked to the advantage of Best Bridal.

"It was a good time to diversify, because the Japanese market slowed down last year, and we think it's going to be about the same this year," said vice president Karen Mukai.

About 95 percent of Best Bridal's customers are Japanese. The company's goal is for "destination weddings" for couples from the Mainland, Australia, Europe and other markets to make up at least 25 percent of its business. Best Bridal is still increasing advertising for Hawai'i in Japan, but with the growth in other markets, it also plans to expand its "destination weddings" staff of wedding planners from two to five.

"We can't keep up with the increase," Mukai said with a laugh. "It's a good problem to have."

The Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, which is undergoing a more than $84 million renovation, has already been working to have a more balanced mix of stores and restaurants that appeal to Japanese, Mainland and other visitors when the project is completed in December, said Anne Murata, director of marketing for the center's management company, The Festival Companies.

Before the construction began a couple of years ago the center appeared heavily geared toward the Japanese market, Murata said.

"What we're trying to do is put a mix of stores in here that will appeal to the Mainland visitor, the European and the Asian visitor," she said. "We're seeing more Chinese all the time right now, too, and they spend like the Japanese used to. They come in and they buy a lot of luxury goods at one time."

The Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center renovation is one of several major projects that are expected to revitalize Waikiki and renew visitor interest — especially from the Japanese.

Not all Japanese-oriented companies are shifting to other markets.

"We see an actual increase" in customers, said Rick Hawkins, the lead driver for BIGTI, which runs Japanese-language tours primarily to Mauna Kea on the Big Island. "We're expanding our tours and creating more diverse type of tours."

DFS Group, which sells Prada and other luxury goods, is still heavily focused on the Japanese market. Japanese make up more than 90 percent of DFS' business. There are no Mainland marketing programs for its retail operations.

Until visa restrictions are lifted for visitors from other countries, such as Korea and China, Japan will continue to be "by far the most productive market," said Sharon Weiner, DFS Group vice president of business development. "There's no other market that comes close to delivering the number of customers that Japan does for us."

"Just because they're diminishing doesn't mean they're going away," she said. "They're still here. They're just not in the same numbers. You can't just press a button and attract a different market. ... We will certainly welcome any customers to our non-duty-free offerings and any customer with an outboard international ticket to our duty-free floor. However, with our store evolving into more luxury, certain customers will be more interested in those offerings than others."

DFS increased its publicity programs in Japan, gave additional training to sales staff and is working on drawing more customers into its retail stores with promotions giving people a chance to win a Mini Cooper or a Harley Davidson motorcycle, Weiner said. It also opened a new, 10,000-square-foot luxury watch and jewelry room in its duty-free store in Waikiki.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.