Tourist arrivals post flat growth in January

The Marianas Visitors Authority reported a flat growth in visitor arrivals for the month of January compared to the same month of the previous year as visitor arrivals reached 43,891.

Arrivals from Japan, the island’s main source of tourists, dipped five percent compared to January 1999. MVA attributes this drop the nonarrival of ships from Japan as 1,679 tourists came in via ship from Japan last year. The tourism office also blamed the termination of direct flights from Nagoya and Osaka which helped pull the market down further.

MVA’s visitor arrivals record in December also showed that the Japanese market remained at a standstill.

Following three consecutive months of decline, visitor arrivals from the U.S. posted a big jump of 45 percent for the month of January due to the arrivals of U.S. Navy vessels which brought in 1,550 visitors to the CNMI.

Korea remains a strong market with a 26 percent jump compared to the same month of the previous year. Taiwan, for the past four months has suffered a double-digit decline with a 63 percent drop in January alone.

MVA believes that the number of Korean visitors will continue to increase due to the recent announcement of Asiana Airlines’ resumption of direct flight from Pusan to Saipan which is set to begin on March 26, 2000.

Tourist arrivals in the CNMI have drastically declined since the Asian economic crisis begun in July 1997. Businesses believe that it will be difficult for the CNMI to go back to its pre-Asian crisis boom when visitor arrivals reached 726,690, or a 66 percent jump over 1996.

Efforts to recover from the tourism decline became much more difficult with the termination of direct flights by Continental Airlines. The Governor’s Aviation Task Force has been trying hard to entice carriers into servicing the CNMI but so far it has been unable to do so.

MVA has been planning to tap its alternative markets, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but the money for promotion is not even enough to pursue Japan and Korea, its main source of visitors.

Tourism Managing Director Perry Tenorio has always emphasized the need for an aggressive marketing campaign to help position the CNMI as a quality destination.

The tourism agency recently reviewed with Tokyo-based advertising company Dentsu 10 plans for the second half of Fiscal 2000. MVA is still using the mascot Sai-panda, symbolizing the male Japanese traveler who keeps on going back to Saipan which was created by Dentsu. Targeting the family market, Dentsu has now added two more characters — a female Sai-panda and little Sai-panda. The mascot was created to increase mind share as well as to reposition and differentiate the CNMI from other destinations.

MVA officials has underscored the need to create a distinct image for Saipan which will differentiate it from Guam, its main competitor.