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MVA due to receive $1M as supplemental budget
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Posted on May 17 2005
The Marianas Visitors Authority is expecting to receive any day now the first half of the $2-million supplemental budget it has requested.
MVA chair David Sablan said yesterday that the Governor’s Office had identified $1 million for MVA’s promotional campaign.
“The first $1 million has been identified and this will be forthcoming any day now to MVA. Definitely, we want to use that to boost our advertising and promotion in Japan, where we seem to lack impetus,” Sablan said.
He also expressed hope that the other $1 million would follow within the next couple of weeks. “The Governor’s Office is quite cognizant of our dire need to do an effective promotion. So I’m trusting the Governor’s Office to help us in identifying the remaining $1 million,” Sablan added.
MVA earlier reported its plan to use $1.5 million of the requested supplemental budget for promotions and advertising in the Japan market, which has been posting declining arrivals for the past several months.
There were 27,930 Japanese tourists who visited the Northern Marianas in April 2005, a 2-percent decline compared with the same month last year. This was the third consecutive month this year that Japan registered decreased arrivals as a result of reduced airline seats to the islands.
The Korea and China markets will receive $200,000 each, while the remaining $100,000 will be spent on CNMI collaterals.
MVA’s marketing budget lags behind those of its closest competitors.
Currently, Guam’s $10.5 million budget is almost triple the CNMI’s $3.7 million. The marketing budgets of Hawaii and Australia are $41.15 million and $93.6 million, respectively.
