MVA wins two travel industry best partner awards

The Marianas Visitors Authority’s Korea office was presented with two awards in January 2018 in recognition of its strong partnership with the travel trade industry.

The MVA won the 2017 partnership award at the 8th Korea Travel Times True Partner Awards hosted by the country’s No. 1 travel trade newspaper on Jan.17, 2018.

Winning partners were selected by industry survey and supplementary verification processes. Korea Travel Times singled out 20 companies that it certified as adding value to cooperation and partnership in the tourism field. Along with two other destination marketing organizations, the MVA received the “mutual partnership” award for actively promoting marketing activities in cooperation with airlines, agents, and online and offline media.

“Since last year, the MVA’s Korea office has expanded our programs to support travel agencies more effectively, and it’s an honor to be recognized by Korea Travel Times for our work,” said MVA managing director Christopher A. Concepcion.

“We have added new sales contests to bolster existing programs such as incentives for hosting golf and MICE groups and selling Marianas’ tour products through TV home-shopping programs. We have also actively launched joint marketing promotions with new airlines and implemented various broadcast marketing strategies, and we are anticipating continued strong arrivals from Korea in the year ahead,” he added.

With the increased number of flight seats to Saipan from Korea’s second biggest city Busan and the surrounding Yeongnam area, the MVA also initiated sales promotion programs and seminars aimed at agents in the market. As a result, the number of Korean visitors to The Marianas was up over 330,000 in 2017, a dynamic growth of 47percentcompared to the previous year.

The MVA was also awarded an appreciation plaque during Jeju Air’s 13th anniversary celebration held on Jan.25, 2018. As the only Destination Marketing Organization awardee, the MVA was recognized for enhancing Jeju Air’s brand image and flight sales to The Marianas through diverse co-marketing activities.

“Along with two sales incentive promotions, bus audio advertising, and giveaway promotions in Busan, the MVA delivered strong return on investment through the TV filming project it organized for “Delicious Guys” in late 2017,” said Concepcion. “This Comedy TV production achieved record-breaking audience numbers of 1,832,083 views and 4,325 post shares on YouTube, and it strongly contributed to publicizing The Marianas destination and enhancing Jeju Air’s brand image.”

MVA Korea general manager Irene Lee accepted the awards at both events, saying the MVA’s Korea office would continue to make greater efforts to support the travel industry. (PR)