Seattle is not a popular destination.

Japanese currency exchange rate stands around 85.5 Yen to a US Dollar. This means everything you see in US$ is about 20% off compared to just a year ago. Because of this, flights from Japan to places like Honolulu and Los Angles are booked for next several months. Only two places in the US West Cost Cities of the US that this surge of tourism are not happening are Seattle and Portland.

Why?

It is not a simple answer. But there are several factors that I can think. (1) the immigration processes in Seattle and Portland are slow and very unfriendly compared to Honolulu, LA and SF. (2) Seattle has one of the highest Sales Tax in the US and State does not give any tax break to tourists from Japan. (3) Not much to see and the transportation from Seattle and Portland to any other cities in the US are very limited compared to LAX and SFO. (4) Air Fair between Seattle and Portland to any cities in Japan are higher than one between LAX to Japan. This is because of the competitions. (5) Air planes that fly between Seattle and Portland to Japan are OLD and SMALL.

There are many business travel between Seattle and Portland to Japan, but we should do better in tourism dollars. The State should do something, since many of the problems are government originated issues.

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