Once more with feelings: Diversify

As tourism remains to be the CNMI economy’s bread and butter together with the apparel sector, the Pacific Asia Travel Association said the Commonwealth needs to tap other tourist markets, particularly Europe, just as another Pacific country – Palau – has penetrated the region.

“Palau has an agent and a tourism office in Germany. They’re really attracting a lot of tourists from Europe, from Germany, specifically to Palau for diving,” said Carmen C. Gaskins, special project committee chair of PATA’s Micronesia Chapter. “We can coordinate and cooperate with that, and have a share market.”

Gaskins made the statement in an interview yesterday, after her speaking engagement at the Environmental Symposium held at the Saipan Diamond Hotel.

Although she recognized that the bulk of tourist visitors on Saipan are Japanese, she said the CNMI should expand its market not only to the nearby regional vicinities.

“It’s not just the CNMI that’s feeling the crunch,” she said. “We need, though, to diversify our target tourists. We need to expand and nurture the tourists from Europe and also from Russia.”

“The Russian tourists stay in the CNMI longer, and they not only support the hotel industry but they also support the economy by going out and buying their food in the supermarket, eating out at restaurants and everything else. It has a wider impact, a wider benefit to the community than those that just are what I call fixed tourist package,” she added.

Gaskins also said that expanding tourist markets entail marketing diversification, such as tapping into historical societies.

The Commonwealth is rich in cultural and historical attractions, since these were among the fiercest battle sites during the World War II. It was on Tinian where the Enola Gay took off, with the atomic bomb that it eventually dropped and exploded over Hiroshima, Japan.

Although there is still no direct flight between Europe and Saipan, she said the Commonwealth is accessible via Manila in the Philippines.

“Majority of the tourists who are coming to Micronesia are coming from Europe to Manila, and then Manila to Micronesia on Continental [Airlines]. There are some… [who] will come directly to Japan, I mean Europe to Japan, and then Japan to the CNMI,” she said.

One of the Micronesian airlines has actually made a study on having direct flights between the CNMI and Europe, but there is no concrete plan yet. “I think it’s just a matter of economics at the moment.”