Previous Story
This may be time to head Down Under
|
Posted on Apr 15 1999
Australia’s Consul General to the Federated States of Micronesia Timothy Cole yesterday paid a courtesy to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, promising to help the Commonwealth promote the Northern Marianas as a tourist destination.
Cole, who is on island as part of his familiarization tour of the Micronesian region, said in an interview he has scheduled a meeting with officials of the Marianas Visitors Authority to discuss how Canberra could assist CNMI market the islands.
“I’m trying to talk with tourism officials mainly with an idea of trying to promote visits by Australians up here to this part of the world,” Cole said.
More than one million nationals from that continent travel outside Australia every year, including the South Pacific region, according to Cole. He said the upcoming regional games would help showcase the Northern Marianas as a tourist haven to Australians.
The governor said he welcomed efforts of the consul general to assist his administration in giving a boost to the slumping tourism industry, particularly at this time when it is hurting from the Asian financial crisis that has pulled down visitor arrivals.
Tenorio explained Australia, along with other European countries, is one of the new markets that MVA is planning to tap with the decline in arrivals from its traditional market.
“We hope we could entice tourists from Australia to come over,” the CNMI leader said, although he acknowledged that much has to be done to attract airlines that would service this route.
CNMI’s tourism industry is facing its worst crisis in years since the 1997 fall of the mighty economies of Japan and South Korea, where the islands rely for visitors and fresh capital.
At the same time, Cole said he will look into areas of possible cooperation and technical assistance that could be extended to the island government.
Initially, he said, one area that could be explored is education since Australia is currently offering a lot of opportunities for foreign students.
