Case Studies Who buys what? Who does that? The case of Golden Week in Hawaii Mark S. Rosenbaum* and Daniel L. Spears Received (in revised form): December 2005 Anonymously refereed paper *Northern Illinois University, College of Business Administration, Department of Marketing, DeKalb, IL 60115–2897, USA Tel: (815) 753 6225 ; Fax: (815) 753 6014; E-mail: mrosenbaum@niu.edu Mark Rosenbaum (PhD Arizona State Univer- sity) is Assistant Professor in the marketing de- partment at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His current research interests include the impact of social forces on retail consumption, tourist shopping, and research methodology. Daniel Spears (PhD Kansas State University) is Assistant Professor in the School of Travel Indus- try Management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His current research interests include tourist shopping, gaming (casino) management and development, and services marketing. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS: Japanese tourism, Japan, Golden Week, Hawaii, tourism shopping, shopping The purpose of this case study is to explore demographic, motivation, and consumption beha- viours among Japanese tourists during Golden Week. Data for this study came from question- naires collected from ‘non-Golden’ and ‘Golden’ Japanese tourists who were vacationing in Waikiki (Honolulu, Hawaii). The results reveal that Golden Week Japanese tourists spend about $900 on gifts during their stay. This dollar figure is nearly $300 more than average spending among non-Golden Week tourists. In addition, Golden Week tourists are employed, well-educated, and primarily interested in vacationing and leisure activities. Overall, the results of this case study are useful to both academics and to marketing/tourism planners. INTRODUCTION Japan’s Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays within seven days. These holidays are Greenery Day (29 April; chan- ged to Showa Day beginning in 2007); Con- stitution Day (3 May); ‘Between Day’ (4 May; changed to Greenery Day beginning in 2007), and Children’s Day (5 May). Because the holidays occur in conjunction with a weekend, Golden Week represents one of Japan’s three busiest holiday seasons, after New Years (1–3 January) and the Obon Week (mid-August). 1 Given that many companies close their Japanese operations during Golden Week, their employees routinely take vacation from work during this time period. Hence, Gold- en Week is an extremely popular time for Japanese to travel. Indeed, flights, trains, and hotels are often booked despite higher rates at this time and many foreign destinations (e.g., Guam, Saipan, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Page 246 Journal of Vacation Marketing Volume 12 Number 3 Journal of Vacation Marketing Vol. 12 No. 3, 2006, pp. 246–255 & SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, CA, and New Delhi. www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/1356766706064621