The COVID-19 virus has killed 150,000 Americans, exposed our indifference to sound public health practices and sacrificed millions who lost their hospitality, travel and other jobs.
That includes family-owned Kiku Enterprises, a small firm that brings an estimated $10 million in travel spending to the Twin Cities annually.
Three family members and several contractors provide logistics, translation and other services for up to 2,500 Japanese business people, students and tourists. It has seen business vanish since February, when coronavirus spread around the world.
"Our last group in February was from Ibaraki, a sister city to Minneapolis," said Chieko Katagiri Karlsen, a daughter of the founder who has become majority shareholder of Kiku. "Our bread-and-butter is business travelers. And we don't have any bookings for the rest of the year."
This is a small business in terms of revenue; about $250,000 a year is generated by three employees and several contractors. But big in terms of assisting travelers who may spend a day to weeks on business or cultural pursuits.
Kiku partners with outfits that range from the Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, 3M, the University of Minnesota and Hennepin Health Care to the Mall of America, Minnesota's renewable-energy industry and agricultural industry, and retailers such as Target, Lunds & Byerlys and Bachman's.
"Meet Minneapolis has partnered with Kiku Enterprises for more than 30 years, specifically to help bring Japanese visitors to our city and region," said Bill Deef, a veteran executive with Meet Minneapolis, the convention-and-tourism bureau. "They provide land arrangements, interpreting services, tours, transportation arrangements, group restaurant reservations, professional appointments, golfing and sightseeing. These small businesses … help generate visitor spending and tax revenue for Minneapolis. Without companies such as Kiku, attracting this event business and their visitors [from around the world] becomes much more difficult."
Kiku was started by Shiro "Don" Katagiri, 79, a student from Japan in the 1960s who married a young woman he met in Chicago. They followed a job to Minneapolis, where they raised their four children.