OMISSION WAS ‘UNINTENTIONAL’ Continental apologizes

Admitting the exclusion of Northern Marianas in one of its makerting promotions was an “unintentional omission,” an official of Continental Micronesia has downplayed the strong reaction by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio as he assuaged fears of its impact on the local tourism industry.

Wally Dias, staff to the vice president for sales and promotion of the Guam-based carrier, said Continental continues to work with the Marianas Visitors Authority in attracting tourists to the island, contrary to reports that it is abandoning the CNMI.

“This omission was a simple, unintentional oversight and in no way represents a change in Continental Micronesia’s policy of strongly supporting CNMI tourism. Continental Micronesia apologizes for the unfortunate omission,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Dias also apologized for the incident, saying it The governor earlier had repeatedly expressed his disappointment over the exclusion of the CNMI from the list of “tropical island getaways” it is promoting as Pacific island destinations in the region, prompting him to question whether Continental still plans to service the Commonwealth.

Mr. Tenorio had sent a letter to Gordon Bethune, chairman and CEO of Continental Airlines — the local carrier’s parent company — in Houston to call his attention, but received apparently lukewarm response from another executive when informed that they would refer the matter to the OnePass marketing division.

Mr. Dias or any of the Guam officials were not provided a copy of the letter and were unaware of the problem until recently.

The campaign appeared on the OnePass Update issue in the September/October issue sent to OnePass members in Japan and Micronesia.

It was marketing Guam, Ponhpei, Yap, Chuuk, Kosrae and Palau — islands it described as “emeralds of the Pacific” that are rich in “culture, language, history and stunning tropical attractions.”

No impact

But Mr. Dias said the list was just an article describing a promotion of Continental’s new Boeing 777 service between Tokyo and the U.S. mainland that could earn OnePass members enough miles for free trip from Japan to any of the Pacific destination.

“While the omission of Saipan from this specific list is unfortunate, it will have no impact on the number of OnePass passengers traveling on free tickets to Saipan,” he added.

Since the island is included in the OnePass reward list and in the airline’s reservation system, Dias pointed out that customers would have a chance to select Saipan and that its reservation staff in Japan have strong knowledge about this destination.

Underlining the “minimal impact” of the omission, he claimed that most of Continental passengers coming from Japan are not traveling on OnePass tickets, but on paid trips purchase from wholesaler partners there.

“Despite the continuous disparaging remarks about Continental Micronesia’s efforts by certain individuals in the CNMI, we have continued to strongly market the CNMI to the travel agencies,” said Dias.

The airline, Dias said, expects to allot over 225,000 seats to the Commonwealth by 2000 and that it has spent about $25,000 in the past three months in developing promotional brochures to woo Japanese travelers to the island.

He added an article about the CNMI appeared in a famous Japan travel catalogue with the MVA logo and the Saipanda mascot, while its website includes the CNMI in the Micronesia pages.

“This is just a small sample of our efforts to support the CNMI,” Dias explained. “What is perplexing is that we informed the MVA of all this activity.”

Disturbing

Citing their relationship with local tourism officials, he said MVA can contact their Guam office as they usually to do when requesting support for various promotional projects, instead of making comments in the media.

“It is deeply disturbing and disappointing to the employees of Continental Micronesia to be continuously vilified by the very organization they try to assist. These continuous public attacks also negate the efforts we make in promoting the CNMI,” said Dias.

As for the controversy surrounding the issue, he criticized it as “misleading, overstated and full of half-truths” typical of media reports and CNMI government’s comments on the airline.

The exclusion from the OnePass list is the latest straw to the strained relations between the Northern Marianas and Continental, the largest air carrier in Micronesia, in the wake of its decision to drop all direct flights to Saipan from key Asian destinations due to shrinking passenger haul and designation of Guam as its hub.

Island leaders maintain the cutback will further push down tourist arrivals here, particularly from Japan which makes up about 80 percent of the island’s visitors.