MVA shares ‘NMI treasure’ with Russian travel agents

Representatives of travel agencies and the Marianas Visitors Authority gathered for a Marianas seminar about Saipan, Tinian, and Rota on Dec. 8, 2016, in Vladivostok, Russia. (MVA)

The Marianas Visitors Authority’s Marianas Seminar destination training session was held in Russia on Thursday, Dec. 8, with 17 managers and directors from top travel agencies of Vladivostok. Seminars in other cities will follow.

The event, held at popular café Cat & Clover located in the heart of the city, opened with a presentation on tourist attractions on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, as well as new tourism developments.

The seminar then engaged participants in the thematic quest “Treasures of Northern Marianas” developed for the MVA by Quest Cafe entertaining company. In the game, a treasure hunter had hidden his gold somewhere in the Northern Marianas, and to find the treasure, contestants had to collect pieces of the map from five of his relatives living on the islands. Four teams attempted to execute different tasks with five game characters; sage, shaman, fisherman, detective and cook. The sage solved logical riddles, the fisherman took a virtual exploration trip, the detective helped with the investigation and searched for evidence in a dark room using an ultraviolet flashlight, the shaman made participants take part in a mystical ceremony, and the cook found ingredients for a tropical cocktail. At the end of the game the winners received a chest full of gold bullion bars (made of chocolate), an NMI-themed cake and a gift certificate from Quest Cafe. Following the evening’s banquet, each participant received a set of branded giveaways from the MVA. Included were passport covers, luggage tags and eyeshades with the Saipan Tinian Rota logo.

“It’s wintertime in Vladivostok, so this is the perfect time to remind travel agents about the tropical allure of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota with a creative theme-based quest,” said MVA managing director Christopher A. Concepcion. “The Northern Marianas is still receiving a some visitors from Russia, largely via Seoul and largely repeat visitors, and we will continue to woo the market until we see an economic turnaround. Russian visitors are still important to the Northern Marianas.”

In fiscal year 2016, the CNMI received 1,796 visitors from Russia, a 35-percent decrease from the previous fiscal year due to the difficult Russian economy and an expensive currency exchange rate from the ruble to the dollar. On average, Russian visitors stay considerably longer and spend more money in the NMI compared to other source market visitors. (MVA)