What should we do NOW to promote the NMI?

Third of a four-part series

Editor’s Note: The following is a letter submitted by the author to the Office of the Governor, the Legislature and the Marianas Visitors Authority. The letter was made available to the media. Mr. Narita is a Japanese with extensive experience in the tourism business, beginning in Guam in the early ’70s and ending on Saipan in the early 2000. He was involved with the Japan Travel Bureau and its subsidiary companies for 41 years, six of these in Guam and 17 on Saipan, including three years as president of Kan Pacific Saipan Ltd., dba Mariana Resort & Spa. He was a board member of the Guam Visitors Bureau, the first president of Japan Guam Travel Association, Public Relations committee member of the Marianas Visitors Bureau, president of HANMI, and president of the Saipan Association of Travel Agent.

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The administration should set up vocational schools such as commercial and technical senior high schools, so that the graduates will be able to find jobs soon after graduation. As a matter of fact, almost all enterprises in CNMI have no space to train or teach the new graduates in-house because of budget and time constraints. Therefore, businesses hesitate to employ new graduates who have no knowledge and experience and, instead, reluctantly employ the more experienced alien workers, if enterprises are to survive in their business ventures. If this is not possible to set up vocational schools, then the administration—via the Public School System and the Northern Marianas College—should encourage adding on the vocational courses to the regular curriculum, most especially those that are in demand at the moment by island businesses.

The teachers or instructors of these vocational courses should be arranged by and or with the input of the private sector or we may even be able to use private sector nonresident employees who would have the necessary skills and background to teach and train in these vocational fields. This should be included in the labor contract. If young graduates are well trained, the private sector will more readily agree to employ them instead of alien workers.

The administration should promote fish farms in the surroundings of Tanapag or Managaha, where we used to catch a lot of fish. Now we seldom find fish because of overfishing. This came about because we allowied people to catch without any restriction. We need to implement restrictions or we must strengthen those already in the books. The administration should invite the tuna fishing vessels of Japan, Korea or Taiwan, as the tuna fishing business is now being done in Guam. The CNMI used to do the tuna business on Tinian, but now it has been suspended.

Perhaps the most pressing need for the CNMI at present is to invite international airlines in order to secure enough flights and seats to fill hotels rooms presently available in the CNMI. Selling tours of the CNMI without airline seats in Japan is just like a soldier going to war without bullets (airline seats), as one travel agent is said to have remarked about our current situation.

Besides more airline seats, the CNMI need more hotel rooms. The airline and hotel businesses are like two wheels of a motorcycle: without one, no tourism industry will succeed. In other words, no airline will show interest without enough hotel rooms. The hotelier’s situation is the same as well. Which is first? The judgment is difficult, a situation similar to the chicken-or-egg question. Regrettably, there is no application to build a new hotel at present. It will take three years to build a hotel (200 rooms or more) since the starting date of the planning. Therefore, it will be pretty difficult to increase that total at present. Again, this is a which-came-first dilemma: chicken or the egg.

The number of tourists (except military personnel) will reach more than 73,000 within 4-5 years from now. Realistically, the best way to increase hotel rooms is to ask existing hoteliers who have already invested in the CNMI to simply add more rooms to their room inventory. To do this, the administration will have to provide special incentives to the hoteliers, just as they are currently doing with the Investment Program Act of 2000.

It is said that Guam’s tourism industry is 10 years behind Hawaii and the CNMI’s tourism industry is 10 years behind Guam. The administration should admit the fact strictly and study the tourism industry development process and strategies of the two competitive islands, and then plan to make a long-range (at least 10 years) strategy, which will have to be implemented as early as possible. The implementation must be done steadily and faithfully even if there is a change in governor every four years. Of course some strategies should be changed in the interim of the long-range program, if necessary.

Recently, the Grotto dive site in Marpi has been rehabilitated to be more convenient and attractive to tourist. That is good, but the observatory on Mt. Tapochau and the road leading to the mountain should have to be also rehabilitated to attract more tourists. The CNMI still needs more tourist attractions when compared to other competitive tourist destinations like Guam and Hawaii. The administration should strive to increase more places of interest with the cooperation and understanding of the private sector. The administration should assist Chamorro and Carolinian village near CAO in Garapan to be a more attractive and enjoyable facility for tourists by introducing more cultural activities, songs, foods and festivities. (Koki Narita, Special to the Saipan Tribune)

To be continued.