“The hotels still need the nonresident workers in order to manage the hotels. I am sure all the hotels are the same,” said Nick Nishikawa, the general manager of the Hyatt.
He said “the industry has very good resident workers and they are fast catching up.”
He also believes that resident workers will replace nonresidents in the near future.
Hyatt employs about 260, said Nishikawa, and half are resident workers.
With the temporary vacuum in the Japan market due to the earthquake-tsunami disaster there, Nishikawa said the hotels are looking at other markets — China, Russia, Korea and the U.S. military.
Asked if Hyatt cut costs in other areas, Nishikawa said they didn’t. “In fact in May, we did better compared to the same month last year.”
He told Variety that the hotel experienced a 10 percent increase in occupancy.
He expects the Japan market to rebound during summer —maybe July or August.
