Previous Story
Visitor arrivals down 4% in February
|
Posted on Mar 16 2001
Flat growth arrivals from Japan and a 12 percent drop in the number of arriving tourists from Korea, conspired to pull down February visitor arrivals to the CNMI by close to 4 percent.
Number of visitors to the islands fell from 45,997 in February last year to only 44,178 last month. The figures represent a 3.95 percent decrease.
Japan, the Commonwealth’s major market, posted flat growth during the period.
The decline was attributed to a 5.3 percent dip in direct flights from Japan and the 28-day calendar of February 2001, which easily cost the MVA 1,000 visitors. February had 29 days last year, which was a leap year.
The figure would have been more depressing if not for the entry of Continental Airlines’ direct flights from Osaka which began Feb. 1. The direct flight increased the number of seats from Japan to Saipan by 620 seats per week.
Another factor is the slowdown in the number tourists arriving through charter flights, which fell 69 percent from 2,266 passengers in February 2000 to only 696 during the same month this year.
CNMI’s second-largest market, Korea, for its part, registered its first decline after consecutive months of growth since December 1998. The slowdown is attributed to February not being a vacation month for Koreans.
The decline was also blamed on the continued devaluation of the Korean won. The loss in buying power of the currency forced Korean travelers to instead choose short-distance, low-priced destinations like China, Thailand, and Southeast Asian countries.
Another reason why Koreans seem to have shunned the CNMI last month was the impression the islands’ tourist attractions have remained relatively unchanged in the past 10 years, compared to that of Guam’s.
The CNMI also experienced a 43 percent decline in visitor arrivals from the United States in February 2001. The sharp fall is attributed to the decrease in military ship arrivals to the islands, which brought in 327 visitors to the CNMI as compared to 989 in 2000.
One bright spot in February for the MVA is the performance of its Taiwan market. Visitor arrivals from Formosa jumped 236 percent last month to 666.
