‘Korea market recovering; Japan slow but steady; China 0’

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, right, and Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Christopher A. Concepcion, left, are shown the training facilities where T’way Air provides training to its pilots, flight attendants, and other airline crew. Palacios met with the senior leadership of T’way Air last week in a series of meetings that included discussions with other airlines that currently fly to the CNMI from South Korea. (OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR)

So far, the CNMI’s Korea tourism market is recovering well, while the Japan market is recovering steadily but very slowly, and there are zero flights from China.

That, in a nutshell, is where the CNMI’s tourism industry is right now, according to Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Christopher A. Concepcion in his remarks during yesterday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on MVA’s proposed budget for 2024.

And if there is something the CNMI can do collectively to improve its tourism numbers, it is to improve what visitors see when they arrive and get off the plane, Concepcion said.

“Let’s face it, many of our government buildings, private properties, our roads, our parks, our businesses, our villages, [and] our tourist sites are just not looking very attractive. Our islands look old and rundown,” he said in his presentation, during which he also showed pictures to illustrate his point.

With respect to the Korea market, Concepcion said that before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there were about 266,239 air seats from Korea in fiscal year 2019.

“…By the end of this fiscal year, we project to recover about 77% of those air seats. So about 205,309,” he said.

For Japan, Concepcion said, they had 19 charter flights by Skymark Airlines in fiscal year 2019 and 118 regular flights for the first four months of fiscal year 2020.

For this fiscal year, they project 143 flights by United Airlines from Tokyo through the end of August 2023. He said they are in talks with United Airlines about continuing these flights beyond August.

As for the China market, Concepcion said, they have zero flights from China and no immediate plans to pursue that market, mainly due to geopolitical concerns and the CNMI government signaling it is pivoting way from its reliance on this market. However, Concepcion said, they are starting to see a few visitors from China arriving via Korea and Japan.

MVA is also seeking federal funding to explore and open new source markets.

Among some of MVA’s initiatives with Japan was a media familiarization tour last December for a TV golf program, Swing Star in Saipan. From January to April 2023, the show aired 10 episodes about the CNMI’s golf courses and these generated an estimated $27 million in advertising exposure value for the Marianas.

Concepcion said familiarization fours are a strategic investment for the MVA to provide a profitable return on investments. He said airlines and travel agencies are both essential partners in their marketing efforts.

Concepcion said their recent sales promotion with top travel agencies in Korea targeted specific niche markets like golf, families, honeymoon, and others. This promotion, he said, gained the CNMI over 17,000 new bookings.

The MVA official said their recent airline promotion with Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, and T’way Air gained another 5,600 bookings.

As for Japan, Concepcion said the country has just started encouraging international travel last month. He said vaccinations and COVID test requirements for arriving passengers were just lifted in Japan last month.

“As you may know, many Japanese parents chose not to vaccinate their children, therefore they did not travel,” he said.

Concepcion said Japan had a national travel discount program offering discounts to encourage domestic Japanese travel. When the program started, the discount was at about 40% on hotel stays, car rental, and other travel-related activities.

“It’s now at 20% discount,” said Concepcion, adding that the Japan Association of Travel Agents and Japan Tourism Agency have launched their first international campaign.

“Now is the time to go abroad. So that’s happening now,” he said.

Concepcion said MVA’s major campaigns for Japan include the Marianacation promotion, incentivizing customers to choose the Marianas with airport and shopping shuttle.

He said there is a special package discount, one free golf or diving, and booking incentive so the travel agents will sell the destination.

Concepcion said they also had some tremendous media exposures this year through familiarization tours with two popular TV shows—$2.8 million advertising exposure value with Tabi Salad and another $400,000 advertising exposure value with World Summer Resort.