TRIP extended anew

The Marianas Visitors Authority has extended again the Travel Investment Resumption Plan, or TRIP, program but has stopped giving out incentives as travelers are starting to show self-motivation in traveling to Saipan.
MVA acting managing director Judy Torres said last week that TRIP incentives like the Travel Bucks—where the CNMI government gave tourists $500 each to be spent locally—have been stopped.

“Travel Bucks ceased in February 2022, as visitors from Korea are being increasingly self-motivated to travel. …A free PCR test for visitors returning to Korea is still being offered and we are looking at limited airline support based on load factor performance—or how many visitors airlines bring in,” she said.

Torres explained that, as the number of visitors continue to increase, MVA gradually reduced the TRIP incentives.

“Since the program’s inception in July 2021, we have seen a slow but gradual increase in the number of visitors under the program, so we have systematically been able to adjust or reduce incentives,” she said.

Because of this, Torres said MVA deems that the TRIP program has been a success but the CNMI still has a long way to go in terms of bringing back tourism to pre-COVID-19 levels.

“At this point, given current COVID-19 conditions, we can say our plan to use TRIP to jumpstart the Marianas tourism economy has been a success. However, travel worldwide remains low, so we still have a long way to recovery, including the reboot of other source markets. The MVA continues to support and collaborate with our airlines, travel agents, and other stakeholders for a sustainable and safe recovery,” she said.

Back in June 2021, the CNMI administration and the South Korean government signed a travel bubble agreement that essentially allowed groups of vaccinated travelers to enter the CNMI as a means to kickstart tourism and ultimately help the CNMI’s tourism economy recover from the impact of COVID-19.

Pursuant to this agreement, the CNMI established the TRIP program to provide subsidies to airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and other related businesses to help jumpstart tourism.

MVA, in collaboration with the CNMI administration, initially planned for the TRIP program to remain in place for eight weeks, but due to its gradual success, MVA has decided to extend it multiple times.

As a result of the TRIP program, the CNMI has started to see thousands of tourists visiting the CNMI again and has even established a relationship with Air Busan, which has expressed an interest regularly providing air service to Saipan.