Seattle's Suzuki lures baseball tourists

By CNN's Alex Frew McMillan

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A record 17.8 million Japanese tourists headed for other shores last year, the Japanese government said Friday.

That was up 9 percent. The United States, which drew more than a quarter of the travelers, is their top destination.

First port of call? New York, Los Angeles or Las Vegas. But a new vacation spot is on the map this year: Seattle.

Thanks to the success of the Seattle Mariners' lead-off hitter, Ichiro Suzuki, Japanese baseball fans have discovered the U.S. West Coast city.

Young and alone

Travel agencies have started offering baseball trips that take in up to three games. Kinki Nippon Tourist, Japan's second-largest travel agency, has taken 150 tourists on 10 trips since it started offering them in April.

The travelers are young, and they're overwhelmingly male. Many wrap their baseball junket in with a sidetrip to Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

But baseball is the main event. The pilgrimage to Safeco Field sets them back around 200,000 yen, or a little under $1,700.

"They want to see Ichiro," explained Ken Onodera, a salesman in the Tokyo office who has run two Seattle tours. "Everybody is very interested."

The baseball vacationers are a different type of traveler. While most Japanese tourists tend to go abroad in groups, many of Kinki Nippon's baseball fans have gone alone.

"It's very unusual that just one person would attend in a tour, so I think that's interesting," Onodera said. And they're new to U.S. Major League Baseball.

"They've become fans this year. They didn't even watch MLB before Ichiro moved to Seattle," Onodera said. They take in the games, do a little shopping, then head home.

Disappointing response

It's not like Seattle is lighting up Japanese tourism. Several agencies have been disappointed about the lackluster interest for baseball trips.

Most Japanese tourists head straight to the Grand Canyon, Disneyland or the gambling tables instead.

"Seattle is not a popular scenic city for the Japanese," Norio Torigoe said at Nippon Travel Agency. The agency has only sold 10 baseball junkets. "It's not popular. I'd like to know why," he said with a laugh.

Some agencies try and combat that diffidence by mapping Seattle's away games. Travelers have taken off for New York or Los Angeles to see the Mariners take on the Yankees or the Dodgers.

"Ichiro is special"

Ichiro Suzuki isn't the only Japanese player in the major leagues. Kazuhiro Sasaki plays with him in Seattle.

Hideo Nomo, who started the trend of Japanese major leaguers when he moved to America in 1995, pitches in Boston. Hideki Irabu pitches for Montreal. Tsuyoshi Shinjo plays for the New York Mets.

But Ichiro Suzuki, 27, has turned Japanese fans on to American baseball. He was Japan's batting champion for seven years with the Orix BlueWave, who sold him to the Mariners more than $13 million. His absence has caused a slump in attendance in Japan.

"There are other Japanese players, but Ichiro is special," said Hiroshi Ueno, a spokesman for travel agency JTB Corp. "Almost all the Japanese people know him."

His long hitting streaks have been a topic of daily conversation. Japanese television station NHK broadcasts Mariners games live almost every day.

The omnipresence of Mariners broadcasts likely puts some Japanese tourists off a U.S. trip. Still, JTB says it has sold baseball vacations to 300 people, from teachers to students to lawyers.

Some addicts have already signed up for a return visit. Ichiro Suzuki will draw a few to Seattle on July 10, if he makes the All-Star game there, as expected.

But in faddish Japan, travel agents say U.S. baseball's boom will likely last a year or two.

Ueno admitted heading 4,600 miles for a sports event doesn't have mass appeal, even for him. "I'm not interested in baseball."