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MVA: Drop in visitor arrivals to persist
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Posted on Mar 17 2020
Due to the continuous spread of COVID-19, a representative of the Marianas Visitors Authority restated recently that the CNMI will continue to see a drop in arrivals until the situation gets better.
According to Thomas Kim, marketing manager of the MVA, the CNMI has a total of 126 flights operating only from Korea and Japan.
There was supposedly 261 scheduled flights for the month of March, but with the growing case of the COVID-19 cases in Korea, there has been constant changes to flight schedules with reduced numbers of planes.
Furthermore, there has been a decrease on the number of foot traffic in the streets of Korea, which indicates that the situation in Korea is only getting worse.
On the other hand, the Japan market is not really impacted, people in Japan are still travelling to the CNMI with Skymark Airlines Inc. which is the only airline that is offering services to and from the CNMI.
Kim stated that they are working closely with the Commonwealth Health Care Corp. with the health declaration form, which is mandated for all passengers to fill out prior to landing on Saipan, this will be used for screening purposes.
Forms have been distributed to all airline partners and have been and will continue to be used until this crucial situation gets better. Forms have been translated for all passengers, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, arriving on Saipan as well as proper home care guide and proper hygiene practices.
The CNMI saw a 30% drop of arrivals in February with only 26,700 visitors. Last year, there were 38,049 visitors in the month of February. For the month of March, it was assumed that the CNMI will get 18,000 visitors, but the numbers seem to keep decreasing.
These visitors don’t include the Chinese market since flights from the key tourism market have been suspended since the month of January.
