Continental’s decision worries tour operators • Dropping last direct flight to Japan a blow to marketing campaign, says travel group

The Northern Marianas would have difficulty recovering from the tourism slump with the decision of Continental Micronesia to remove all its direct flights from various cities in Japan to Saipan, according to Japan Saipan Travel Association.

In fact, more Japanese now would prefer to go to Guam than Saipan as they have always shunned waiting for more than 30 minutes to take a 30-minute connecting flight to Saipan, said Iwao Sakai, general manager of R&C Tours.

Continental Micronesia will drop its Nagoya-Saipan flight on Oct. 1, 1999, the airline’s last remaining nonstop service between Japan and the CNMI, claiming continuous decline in the traffic.

In 1998, the traffic in the Nagoya-Saipan direct service slipped 24 percent and dipped further by 20 percent from January to July this year, said Wally Dias, staff to the vice president for sales and marketing.

Tourists who would like to go to Saipan from Guam are not always guaranteed of a seat in the plane, since they would have to compete with passengers who regularly fly between the two islands.

“It will be a big headache. We would have a big problem in selling Saipan now,” said Kiyoshi Aikawa, general manager of Creative Tours Micronesia.

Japanese tour operators would now depend heavily on Northwest Airlines and Japan Airlines since these are the remaining carriers that maintain direct flights to Japan.

JAL will operate nine Nagoya-Saipan charter flights before the end of the year — three each in the months of October, November and December.

In January, February and March 2000, there will be eight more Nagoya-Saipan charter flights. Similarly, the airline will have eight charter flights from Fukuoka to Saipan.

Hotel occupancy rate on Saipan would still be about 60 percent even if all the limited flights now are fully booked, said Ikuo Katayama, general manager of Pacific Micronesia Tours, Inc.

Due to the difficulty in getting a booking, the Japan Travel Bureau study tour had to be postponed from September to October because there are no available seats from Japan to Saipan.

A meeting of JTB managers and planners was supposed to be held on Tinian island but had to be canceled because the executives of the biggest tour operator in the world could not get a booking to come here, Katayama said.

“It was supposed to be our chance to show to these people the different attractions of the CNMI so that we can get a bigger share in the promotion but we decided to hold the meeting in Tokyo instead,” he added.

The lack of available seats from Japan to Saipan undermines the promotional campaign of the Marianas Visitors Authority, said Koki Narita, general manager of Tasi Tours. “What is the use of promotion if your visitors cannot come here anyway,?” he asked.

All Nippon Airways will operate 10 Osaka-Saipan charter flights from December 1999 to January 2000 for the millennium tour package which is being marketed by JTB’s subsidiary companies.

Since last year, the Governor’s Aviation Task Force has been trying to convince several airlines to carry out direct flights to Saipan from various cities in Asia in a move to boost traffic and revive the ailing tourism economy.