Visitor arrivals stay level in 1Q

The first quarter of the year did not see any significant decrease in visitor arrivals to the CNMI; it did not show any marked growth either.

The Marianas Visitors Authority reported a .05 percent fall in visitor arrivals during the first three months of the year with a total of 134,179 tourists to the Commonwealth, compared to 134, 243 in the same period a year before.

MVA visitor arrival figures in the start of the year were encouraging as the CNMI recorded a close to four-percent increase in the number of inbound tourists. From visitor arrivals of just 43,891 in January 2000, tourists coming over to the Northern Marianas surged to 45,613 in January 2001.

By the second month of the year, however, MVA figures nose dived close to four percent. In effect, gains in the first month were instantly negated by February when there were only a total of 44, 178 visitor arrivals to the CNMI. In February the year before, the MVA registered 45,997 visitor arrivals.

Last month, visitor arrivals to the CNMI characterized the trend for the start of the year as the increase in tourists going to the islands showed a mere .07 percent rise. March 2001 saw 44,388 tourists coming over to the CNMI, compared to 44,355 in the same period last year.

In terms of nationalities visiting the CNMI, the Japanese market still came up on top as the MVA’s biggest market recorded a total of 104,878 visitor arrivals in the first quarter.

The figures represent a two percent rise in visitor arrivals from Japan vis-a-vis the first three months of last year. In the first quarter of 2000, visitor arrivals from the Land of the Rising Sun totaled only 101,951.

Visitor arrivals from Korea was a far second with 13,811. In stark contrast, with its North Asian neighbor, the Korean market suffered a four percent decrease in visitor arrivals. In the first three months of 2000, Koreans who visited the Commonwealth totaled 14,518.

Meanwhile, the US maintained its third place ranking, albeit barely, with only 4,820 visitor arrivals in the first quarter of 2001. In the same period last year, visitors from the mainland totaled 9,142. The difference between first quarter 2000 and 2001 figures represent a 47 percent decline in visitor arrivals.

Visitor arrivals from Guam is slowly catching up with mainland figures. From the January to March period, the MVA saw 4,397 tourists from Guam visiting the Northern Marianas, compared to 4,522 in the first quarter of 2000.

The long suffering visitor arrival figures could be attributed to a number of factors. The health of the Japanese and Korean economies, for one, has long dictated the choice of travel packages among its people.

The depreciation of the Korean won has resulted in more of its vacationers opting to choose less-expensive destinations relative to the Northern Marianas like Thailand and Malaysia.