‘Overhaul visitor industry, create tourism master plan’

To arrest the further decline in the tourism industry, a newly formed group is suggesting the immediate adoption of a new 10-year tourism master plan in the CNMI addressing all pressing issues facing the sector.

The CNMI Enterprise Group also recommends making Marianas Visitors Authority board members more accountable by requiring them to resign their posts in case of consistent tourist arrival declines in two years, for instance.

The group, led by former chief justice Jose S. Dela Cruz, said that legislation must be enacted to limit to a maximum of two four-year terms the tenure of MVA board members. The legislation, it said, should also hold them accountable “for any decline in the number of visitors to the Commonwealth in any given year.”

“If the decline in the number of visitors is more than 10 percent for two consecutive years, for example, the legislation may provide for sanctions, as may be appropriate, such as requiring the board members to resign from office and for a new board to be installed,” said the group in a paper submitted to Gov. Juan N. Babauta, House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, Senate President Joaquin G. Adriano, and MVA board chair David M. Sablan.

Dela Cruz said the group, which consists of concerned CNMI residents from different sectors, was formed in June following the news of Japan Airlines’ pullout from the CNMI route.

He said the group meets once or twice a month, on a voluntary basis, to discuss some of the major issues affecting the CNMI. The goal is to make specific recommendations to the government and business leaders to help “improve and enhance the quality of life for all the residents of the Commonwealth.”

Dela Cruz said they focused their first forum on tourism because “it has been experiencing a series of crises, which has resulted in a continuing decline in the number of tourists visiting the Commonwealth.”

The recent pullout of JAL has exacerbated the impact of Continental Airlines’ pullout of direct flights from Saipan to Japan five years ago.

“Continental Micronesia used to have many direct flights. All of a sudden, the airline in recent years started pulling out. Now, almost everything is routed to Guam. Why is that?” asked Dela Cruz.

He said the CNMI needs to get more direct flights to and from key tourism markets such as Japan, China, and South Korea if it expects to get increased tourist arrivals.

“The CNMI…must breathe new life into the visitor industry by overhauling the visitor industry bureaucracy, and by adopting a completely new tourism master plan for the new millennium,” said the group.

It said that the 1990 10-year master tourism plan expired five years ago.

Dela Cruz said that a marketing plan, which the MVA may be implementing now, is only a part of a new master plan. The new plan must correct the shortcomings that have adversely affected the industry and have caused many visitors to think twice about visiting the CNMI, the group said.

“The CNMI has so much to offer our visitors: our excellent climate, our beaches, our natural environment, our culture and history, our friendly people, and our stable political status under the U.S. flag,” said the group.

Aside from Dela Cruz, the three-page recommendation was also signed by former associate justice Ed Manibusan, ports authority executive director Carlos H. Salas, Jose Ayuyu, Norman T. Tenorio, Michael Johnson, former Lt. Gov. and former justice Jesus C. Borja, Herman T. Guerrero, Bernadita T. Seman, Brenda Y. Tenorio, NMC president Antonio V. Deleon Guerrero, Frances Borja, Josephine T. Sablan, Ana S. Teregeyo, Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Magdalena S. George, and former Northern Marianas College president Agnes M. McPhetres.