By LEAH KOHLENBERG

ith Malaysia's beaches nearly empty and many Hong Kong hoteliers struggling to fill their rooms, Asia's tourism industry is experiencing its worst nightmares. The problem: many Japanese are eschewing their former globe-trotting ways and staying at home.

In good times, the Japanese are far and away the region's biggest travelers. In 1997, Japan accounted for 17 million of the world's tourists--and about 10 million of them visited Asian countries. But many Japanese these days are feeling the effects of the economic downturn and cutting back on tourism. Japanese overseas travel declined 11.5% in January and 7.7% in February, compared with year-earlier levels, according to Japan's National Tourism Organization. Things aren't expected to get better soon. Officials expect that travel overseas during Japan's Golden Week holiday (April 25 to May 5 this year) will be down 2.4% from a year ago.

"Japan has been in recent years a cash cow for Asia, and it's easy to rely on one cash cow rather than to seek other markets," says Helen Peterson, a Singapore-based spokeswoman for the Pacific Asian Travel Association. "This is a wake-up call for the tourism industry to realize they can't rely on regional markets alone."

Among the hardest-hit destinations is Hong Kong, which had about 61,000 Japanese arrivals in February, 58% fewer than a year ago. "We are concerned, of course," says Hong Kong Tourist Association spokesman Peter Randall. Hong Kong's problems have been compounded by wide (and probably overblown) coverage of a local bird flu and revelations that some tour operators were overcharging Japanese travelers. But other Asian countries are suffering as well: in Singapore, Japanese tourist arrivals in January were down 30% from a year earlier.

The winners appear to be the tourism industries in Japan itself and in neighboring South Korea. Japan's weakened yen has encouraged citizens to spend more at home--domestic travel increased nearly 2% in the first two months of the year, according to the Japan Travel Bureau. Okinawa is experiencing a tourism boom: arrivals were up 21% in January. And the JTB predicts that cheap package deals for Seoul--three days and two nights, including hotel, airfare and guided tours, now goes for as little as $270--will boost travel to South Korea 24% this year.

Elsewhere, tourism officials are going to great lengths to woo the Japanese back. In Hong Kong, the industry has concluded that if Japanese won't come to Hong Kong, a little bit of Hong Kong should go to Japan--in the form of a month-long blitz this June of traveling food festivals and Canto-Pop concerts in several Japanese cities. "We don't expect to turn Japan around right away," says Randall. "But when people do get into a traveling mode again, we want to be top on their list." And officials are also stepping up the search for visitors from elsewhere. "This has taught people that you can't put all your eggs in one basket," says Peterson.

--With reporting by Sachiko Sakamaki /Tokyo

HOT DEALS

Now you can stay virtually for free in Singapore. To encourage travelers to remain in the city-state for awhile, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir through Sept. 30 will allow layover passengers flying between other destinations to stay in a three- or four-star hotel for $1 the first night, and $30 for each subsequent night. The airlines are also offering discounts on local tours and meals. The deal is similar to one served up by Cathay Pacific Airways, which is offering layover travelers a free night in a Hong Kong hotel.

WEB CR@WLING

ARMCHAIR WORLD
(www.armchair.com)

(CYBER) SURFING HOLIDAY This unusual travel Website offers an eclectic range of information: from articles on self-defense techniques for thwarting a fork-wielding attacker, to an academic paper dissecting Tang Dynasty poetry, to advice on whether to use the controversial anti-malarial drug Larium. The site's "Armchair Roulette" feature helpfully jumps indecisive browsers to a random page-though be open-minded, it could get strange. Warning: the authors tend to be a bit pedantic. "We chose the name Armchair World to metaphorically make the connection between sitting at your computer (the armchair) and exploring the wealth of information out there (the world) by way of the Internet." Get it?

TRAVEL.ORG
(www.travel.org)

HIT AND MISS
This Website at first appears to offer useful links to all sorts of international travel information. Unfortunately, it often fails to deliver the goods. The majority of the links listed under "General Information" on its Hong Kong page, for example, fail to connect anywhere-including links that should work, like those to the well-known Lonely Planet or CIA Factbook sites. And one link that should have led to the Hong Kong Tourist Association's Website went instead to a dated site devoted to the territory's handover last year to China. There are some useful links, but it can be frustrating.

SHORT CUTS

TERRITORIAL TOURISM
China has announced plans to develop the Paracel Island chain (Beijing calls them the Xishas) into a tourist destination. The problem: the South China Sea archipelago is also claimed by Vietnam, though China has occupied it since the 1970s. China has already constructed on Yongxing, the largest island, telephone booths, an airstrip and a satellite relay station. By early 1999, Chinese tourism officials say they hope to open a resort on Yongxing. The Vietnamese government has strongly protested the move.

HAZE-FREE GUARANTEE
Malaysia's Star Cruises will give passengers on the Star Aquarius, which sails Malaysia's east coast, a free trip if smog from Borneo forest fires brings air quality to "unhealthy levels" between May and October.

DETOURS

A silken shimmer of pastel clouds, weaving around the tops of mountains: it's easy to see why China's Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain range) has inspired the country's landscape artists and poets (like the renowned Li Po) for centuries. These days, despite the thousands of travelers, the cable cars and assorted other tourist trappings that crowd the range and verge on tackiness, Huang Shan, located about 400 km southwest of Shanghai in Anhui province, retains a stark beauty that makes a visit worthwhile. Some 112 km of trails wind around the range's 72 peaks, the most majestic being Tiandu Feng (Capital of Heaven) and Lianhua Feng (Lotus Flower). The hot spring at the base of the hills can help ease aching limbs after a day's hike. There are hotels to match almost any budget, from three-star inns like the Beihai or the Xihai to dormitory-style housing. But book ahead, particularly during the spring and fall months.