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Visitor arrivals up on Tinian and Rota but down on Saipan
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Posted on Apr 16 2008
Tourism numbers were up in the two southernmost populated islands of the CNMI last month, but was down in the capital of Saipan.
According to the Marianas Visitor Authority, visitor arrivals to Tinian and Rota posted growth in March 2008 with the latter registering a six percent increase and the former enjoying a more modest four percent bump.
Tinian, the Northern Marianas’ gambling capital, welcomed 3,430 tourists last month compared to 3,225 during the same period last year.
Visitor arrivals from China led the market with a healthy 48-percent hike to 1,728 in March 2008 from 1,166 in March 2007, while tourist from Japan rose seven percent from 698 to 749.
China and Japan arrivals more than made up for the losses incurred from the markets of Korea (11 percent drop to 299), Guam (27 percent drop to 22), and the United States (56 percent drop to 21).
Rota, for its part, was buoyed by the arrival of 971 tourists last month, which was a 37-person jump from the 934 recorded in March 2007.
The Korea market led arrivals with a whopping 160-percent increase to 39 from 15 in March 2007. U.S. arrivals, including those coming from Guam, soared 48 percent to 186 from 126 during the same month last year, while the markets of the Philippine and Japan posted declines of six percent and one percent to 107 and 521, respectively.
Saipan was the odd man out in March 2008, as the most populated island of the Northern Mariana chain saw tourism arrivals shrink four percent to 31,899 from 33,134 during the same period in 2007.
The CNMI’s main market of Japan caused the most damage with a 17-percent drop in visitor arrivals to 17,961 from 21,538 in March 2007.
The underperformance of the Philippines and Guam segments also didn’t help as 82 percent and 10 percent drops translated to a mere 141 tourists (from 769) from the latter and 1,419 (from 1,579) from the former.
On a positive note, Saipan visitor arrivals from Russia, China, Korea, and the United States recorded growth of 127 percent (691 from 304), 43 percent (2,260 from 1,583), 14 percent (7,169 from 6,271), and 13 percent (820 from 725), respectively.
