Bookings increasing for TRIP program with Korea

With last month’s decision of the Marianas Visitors Authority to extend the Tourism Resumption Investment Plan program with South Korea through December, travel agencies and airlines are seeing a gradual uptick in bookings in coming months.

The program is an investment to help jumpstart tourism, the Marianas’ primary economic driver. Since the launch of the TRIP program, over 1,000 bookings have been made, including an increase in bookings to Tinian and Rota. In addition, bookings have been for seven or more nights, much longer than the average four nights prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As the only destination with a travel bubble with South Korea, the Marianas has tremendous opportunity to capitalize on outbound travel demand in the country. Based on recent discussions with travel agents and airlines in Korea, we are very optimistic about the forecast of the TRIP program through December,” said MVA board chair Viola Alepuyo. “With the additional time provided for the program, as well as a firm decision by the COVID-19 Task Force to continue the five-day quarantine for TRIP participants through December, our travel partners now have sufficient time and the necessary details to confidently develop and sell packages for the coming months to their customers. The TRIP program has helped businesses reopen and put more people back to work, steps that are needed to reboot the economy, especially now with the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance ending. We continue to aim for a slow but gradual recovery of the Korea market.”

MVA managing director Priscilla Maratita Iakopo said the MVA will continue to work closely with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and COVID-10 Task Force on all aspects of the program to help ensure community protection.

“We remain grateful to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and COVID-19 Task Force in setting policies that are keeping our community safe, and we acknowledge the hard work of our frontline workers and the continued cooperation of our community in support of those policies,” said Iakopo. “In the long term, the Marianas will continue to benefit from this Tourism Resumption Investment Plan with stimulation of the economy through the revitalization of the tourism industry, travelers’ confidence in travel to the Marianas regained, and increased overall destination exposure.

The MVA has also formed ad hoc committees to begin exploring the feasibility of extending the TRIP program to other markets, including Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, and the rest of Micronesia. (PR)