Archives for 2009

According to the Puget Sound Business Journal the tourists who are showing up in Forks are by no means limited to Americans and Canadians. The local information center has had to hire more staffers because of the upswing in traffic. Usually, things die down after the fall—not this year.

Over the past month large numbers of college students on spring break have been making a Pacific Northwest road trip with stops in Portland, La Push, and Forks. Now it seems that there is an influx of tourists from the UK, Germany, and Japan, and the Seattle tourism satellite branches are doing everything in their power to keep attracting them.

“The Seattle-based Japanese language website Junglecity.com created an online guide to Forks and “Twilight” sites in early April. By mid-month, the feature had received 42,353 hits. Junglecity owner Takumi Ono said Japanese movie fans have become particularly interested in teen love flicks in the past few years, and “Twilight” plays right into that.”

On the Forks Forum, the website of the local Forks paper, they describe a recent event that the town held to encourage this tourism:

“Twilight was the main topic for representatives of tour companies with ties to Japan who visited Forks and LaPush on Wednesday, Feb. 11. Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau Executive Director Diane Schostak of Forks served as a guide for the group. Companies represented at the familiarization visit to the Forks Chamber of Commerce’s Visitor Center in Forks included the Seattle offices of Azumano International and H.I.S. Tours USA. Tomo Hoku Hellman of Azumano International said the “Twilight” movie is scheduled to open in Japan on April 1, and the companies expect growing interest in visits to the West End by Japanese Twilight fans.”

Check out the whole story here.