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Micronesian islands to pool resources for regional marketing
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Posted on Jul 19 2004
Micronesian leaders are moving along with efforts to promote the islands as a regional destination, Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Vicky I. Benavente said yesterday.
According to Benavente, the heads of Guam, CNMI, Yap and Palau agreed during their recent Micronesian Chief Executive Summit to devise a budget scheme to fund regional marketing efforts.
“We have set a rough estimate of $200,000 in initial funding, which will come mostly from the government. But of course, there is no reason why the private sector cannot contribute some amount if they want to,” Benavente said.
Under the plan, which was formulated by the tourism agencies of the four participating destinations, each jurisdiction will contribute a certain amount of money based on its arrival figures.
In effect, Guam, which has the biggest arrivals, will chip in about $100,000; the CNMI, $75,000; and Palau and Yap, the remaining $25,000.
The funding, Benavente said, will be used for actual promotional activities, as well as communication expenses “since we’re separated by all this water.”
The budget scheme is one of the six resolutions that the tourism committee adopted and presented to the Micronesian chief executives during the summit. It comes in line with another resolution made by the tourism agencies to implement a regional marketing plan.
The tourism committee also resolved to task a research firm to conduct a study on the best media campaign that the region can adopt in promoting the destinations.
Benavente recalled that back in the early 1980s, Micronesian islands participated in trade shows and other marketing opportunities together as a region.
“For some reason, each entity decided to promote its destination on its own. But we’re going back to promoting together as a region and to put our resources together,” she said.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association’s Micronesia chapter, which has the same goal, will be one of the main vehicles of the marketing campaign, she added.
