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Kensington reopens, not PIC yet
Cavanagh does not see any value of reopening PIC, other hotels due to low demand
The Kensington Hotel Saipan lobby. (KRIZEL TUAZON)
While Kensington Hotel Saipan has reopened, Pacific Islands Club Saipan is not scheduled to open yet because of low demand, according to PIC general manager Gloria Cavanagh yesterday.
Cavanagh said they are looking into the possibility of opening PIC’s outlets, especially their outdoor happy hour, but probably not until this August or September. “I don’t see the value in opening now,” said Cavanagh.
She said Kensington wants to introduce itself to the local market and that their new chief operating officer, Brian Shin, has an aggressive vision to expand this, including banquets.
Both PIC and Kensington, as well as the Coral Ocean Golf Resort, are all under the E-Land Group umbrella, a Seoul-based company. Of all three, PIC is a different concept, Cavanagh said, in that it is more labor intensive because of its dynamic Clubmates and waterpark.
Cavanagh, who is also chairperson of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, noted that Hyatt Regency Saipan and Surf Club Rider are, so far, the only hotels that have remained open. With the addition of Kensington, there is more than enough inventory of available rooms for now, she said.
International flights are supposed to resume in September but, Cavanagh said, it will be in the latter part of that month. “Our target to reopen is based on when the demand comes back,” she said.
Hotels have shut down operations due to suspension of international flights last March 22 as a result of the global COVID-19 outbreak.
While the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport is opening to international flights by July 15, flights from Asia are not expected to start coming in until September.
Commonwealth Ports Authority board chair King-Hinds said in a recent interview that it’s not only Skymark Airlines Inc. that will continue to suspend its flights until September, but also all airlines from China and South Korea.
