Top PATA exec to address MVA membership meeting

A ranking executive of the Pacific Asia Travel Association is the featured guest speaker in the upcoming general membership meeting of the Marianas Visitors Authority. An update on the status of the Approved Destination Status from the People’s Republic of China will also be provided at the meeting.

Peter Semone, who is PATA vice president for development, will address MVA members during the meeting, which will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 7, at the Fiesta Hall of the Hafa Adai Beach Hotel, at 11:30am.

PATA is the recognized authority on Pacific Asia travel and tourism. The MVA is a member of the PATA Micronesia Chapter. In total, PATA has over 1,000 international members.

Acting MVA managing director Martin F. Duenas said MVA will also present its marketing plans and goals for Fiscal Year 2005.

The MVA membership is comprised of private business sectors throughout the CNMI.

Semone is currently on Guam, where he said in a Wednesday interview with Pacific Daily News that the Marianas and the rest of the Micronesia region’s tourism industries must take a collective marketing approach to remain successful in a constantly changing tide of international tourism.

“I don’t think the brand of Micronesia is strong enough. How many people actually know where Micronesia is on the map?” Semone told the newspaper. “Maybe there isn’t as much subregional cooperation as it should be. Shouldn’t Palau, Yap, Guam, Northern Marianas and other islands work collectively to send out a message of what the Micronesia is?”

Citing PATA projection, PDN said that 2004 will be a record year in terms of the number of international travelers in the Asia Pacific region, exceeding more than 300 million people traveling within the region. It is an increase of 25 million from the previous record year of 2002.

Semone said 70 to 80 percent of those travelers are from Asia.

Factors that contributed to the surge of travelers around the region are the absence of such major incidents as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, and terrorist attacks as well as the emergence of the middle class in China, he said.

According to the projection by PATA, Guam is projected to have about 1.2 million visitors this year, which is not a record, but a major improvement from last year, when the island saw less than a million tourists for the first time in many years. Also, Palau is expecting 93,000 visitors this year. About 550,000 visitors are expected for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

“Overall, Micronesia is doing quite well, but not as good as 2002,” Semone said.

Also, he pointed out that it does not matter how many tourists come to Guam if they do not spend much money on the island and if they do not stay long enough. Visitors’ average length of stay on Guam or in the CNMI is a little more than two days, he said.

However, he suggested that if all Micronesian islands work collectively, each island will increase the number of visitors, and that if each island diversifies its products, it can make the visitors want to stay in the region for a longer period of time.

“Visitors to Guam are potential visitors to Palau. Visitors to Marianas are also potential visitors to Guam,” he said. “How do you lengthen the average length of stay from two days to 10 days? A lot of people might think they will run out of things to do on Guam if they stay 10 days. So, why don’t you let them stay on Guam for three days and go to Palau for four days and come back to Guam and go to Saipan for three more days?”

He also emphasized the importance of having quality products and diversifying them because tourists today are more independent and no longer rely on travel agencies.

“If you can create a Micronesia as a region in which visitors can experience modern and ancient, or East and West, you will attract more tourists to the region, which leads to more revenue for each island,” he said, adding that PATA is an advocate of creating subregional marketing.

Because tourism is constantly evolving as new communication or transportation technologies are invented, travel destinations have to make constant efforts to keep up with the trend, Semone said.

Semone said among the challenges for Guam is the inability to accept Chinese nationals due to the difficulty of granting U.S. visas and the lack of cooperation between neighbor islands.

Because it is almost certain that the number of Chinese outbound travelers will continue to grow, Semone said it is important for the hotels and restaurants to start customizing the products for Chinese tourists while maintaining a balance with other tourists.

“Restaurants should have menus written in Chinese and menus should be more focused on Chinese. Chinese don’t want to eat bread for breakfast. They want to eat rice,” he said. “Even the way that some rooms are aligned should be arranged to meet the taste of Chinese. If you have a beautiful seaside villa, Japanese want to have their bed in a way that their feet are facing the ocean. But, Chinese have a belief that if you feet are facing a window, all your wealth will be swept out of the window. It’s not how you attract more Chinese, but how you embrace them like what you did for Japanese tourists 20 to 30 years ago.” (With PDN/PIR)