‘Marianas’ bland as campaign come-on—Tudela

The Saipan Mayor’s Office has criticized the use of the term “Marianas” in the Marianas Visitors Authority’s new marketing and promotion strategy, saying it is bland and may create ill feeling with Guam.

Replying to MVA’s request for comments on the See My Marianas Campaign 2005, Mayor Juan B. Tudela maintained that most people in the CNMI’s primary tourism markets are familiar with the brand names Saipan, Tinian, and Rota—but not the word Marianas.

“The islands are best known by recognizable brand names as Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Marianas is not only bland, but is also not an [exclusive] lexicon. It extends much beyond the shores of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota,” Tudela said in a letter to MVA.

“Arguably, Guam may take umbrage at the implicit claim of the Marianas by MVA as an exclusive archipelago and domain of the island group of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota,” he added. “We should not create an unnecessary ill feeling with our neighboring island to the south.”

MVA managing director Vicky I. Benavente maintained that for years, the tourism agency has been promoting the NMI as Saipan, Tinian, and Rota in major travel markets abroad.

Benavente said the three islands are always included in all of MVA’s promotional materials—from posters, general information on the destination, to travel agents’ brochures, and MVA’s website www.mymarianas.com.

“On the MVA’s direction to brand our destination as a new and exciting vacation place, we want to put emphasis on the region, Marianas, which incorporates all three islands, linked by airports and seaports,” she told Tudela in a letter.

The “See My Marianas Campaign” aims to create a greater awareness of the activities that one can experienced in the Northern Marianas, Benavente said.

The campaign will focus on (1) sports tourism, (2) gourmet cuisine and entertainment, and (3) health/wellness and spa. It will cover sports tourism from golfing to swimming, gourmet cuisine and entertainment to include fine dining and annual fiestas, and health/wellness and spa, through walking and biking.

In his letter, Tudela also said the term “Marianas” holds no special ring.

“[It does not generate] interest, much less excite the passion on travelers in core travel markets of Japan, Korea, and Greater China, except possibly in Spain or other countries familiar with the former matriarch Queen Mariana of Spain, who would jump at the first opportunity to visit and experience Spain’s vintage colonial outpost in the Pacific,” the mayor said.

He expressed doubt, however, that the word’s historical ring and significance to the Spanish people, particularly historians, may hold much significance among Asian travelers.