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Show Wooing Japanese skiers is complex task cultivating their image in Japan. But he said Utah made a significant impact considering it was the first trip. Prospector Square Hotel has booked book-ed 65 rooms for the upcoming ski season for Japanese visitors. Other bookings are in the works but have not been finalized. - Mompellier said the program to attract Japanese tourism cannot continue without state funding. A very helpful breakthrough came recently, when China Airlines announced an-nounced it would begin round-trip flights from Tokyo to San Francisco for about $500. In coordination with that program, Western Airlines will offer China Airlines travelers a special fare of $299 for four flights to cities in the airlines system. Salt Lake City is Western's hub in this area. "It's the kind of thing we need," said Mompellier of the new airline program. by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer First Japanese tourist-trade mission mis-sion should be just the beginning Utah's first tourist-trade mission to Japan will bring modest results this year, but a continued effort will be necessary to mine the vast skier market there, according to one Park City tourist official. Ken Mompellier, director of marketing for Prospector Square Hotel, recently returned from a promotional pro-motional trip to Japan. He traveled to Japan with Nick Nicholson of Deer Valley as part of Gov. Norm Bangerter's economic development trade mission. The goal for Mompellier and Nicholson was to bring Japanese skiers to Park City. But while that seems straightforward, he said it is-more is-more complicated than it seems. Mompellier explained that Japanese don't like to do business with total strangers. "It takes a long time to cultivate friendships with the Japanese," said Mompellier. It is from long-term acquaintanceships that business springs. That is why it is necessary for any one who wants Japanese business to travel there, he noted. This recent trip is the first real effort ef-fort by the Utah tourist industry to promote travel by Japanese to the Intermountain area. The trip was in conjunction with the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration. Mompellier said representatives from Utah, Deer Valley, Park City Ski Area and Snowbird were represented as well as officials from locales in the state not associated with skiing. The skiing representatives targeted wholesale travel agencies, said Mompellier. He noted that by adopting that strategy, the Utahns would not have to visit every travel agent in Japan. It is the wholesale agents who package ski trips abroad and, in turn, sell the programs to individual in-dividual travel agents. A key to the success of the Utahns' trip, said Mompellier, was the cooperation of Western Airlines. "We relied on their expertise for meeting key people," he said. It is very important to get introduced to Japanese from someone already well known, Mompellier noted. While the Japanese market shows promise.it may take time and ;( energy to successfully tap those travel dollars. "There is a lot of potential there, but everybody in the world wants the Japanese market," he said. The Japanese are a travel-oriented travel-oriented people. But they are also economy-minded, Mompellier explained. ex-plained. Trends show that Japanese like to make short stays at a number of locations when they travel abroad. That may be advantagous for Park City, but currently not very , many Japanese ski abroad. Mompellier said that about 8 percent of the Japanese ski. But of those 10 million skiers, only 6,000 ski outside their home country each year. Presently, most of those go to Canada. Mompellier said the Canadians, Cana-dians, have spent many years |