Poor marketing is victimizing NMI

By FELIX AGUON
Special to the Saipan Tribune

Just a little more than a decade ago, the CNMI visitor industry was about to experience its best year of tourism. This was just with its major markets being Japan and Korea. In August 1997, because of the Korean Airline crash in Guam, the CNMI was the unfortunate victim of a major tourism downturn because of something that was beyond its control.

It wasn’t until months later that the flights resumed and Korean visitors began to return. World events have taken their toll on the CNMI visitor arrivals and it seems as though there is a new threat to the arrivals and to the economy of those who live in the CNMI.

For a little more than five-six years, even with a rebound in arrivals, the area has become a destination with very little, if any, profitability. The strange thing is, even with relatively low labor costs, the quality of service in the islands and the region has become so bad that it is often embarrassing to bring visitors to the area. The common practice was that if your customers were not buying tour options, they would be left pretty much on their own during their time in the area.

A former highly-touted reason for the CNMI’s success was because the islands controlled its own immigration. Even with this, the numbers are dropping and, for the near future, will stay on a negative trend. Do you want to see a turnaround?

With my 30-plus years experience in tourism, I can say that the CNMI lost about 30-40 percent of its customers not merely because of the dwindling profits made by JAL and their subsidiaries but because of a lack of any real PR over the years. Presently, you have an agency in the CNMI representing you in the Japan market. This agency is clueless on how to make a proper advertising campaign. All the ideas they have been using in the two years they have been representing the MVA in Japan are recycled ideas from when they represented Guam for over a decade.

They have not paid any attention to JAL and this is why the CNMI has lost JAL. I don’t care what happens to them because they failed Guam as well.

I have hosted several groups of Chinese government leaders, along with potential investors in the CNMI for several years now. A little bit less than a year and a half ago the CNMI was granted the Approved Destination Status by the Chinese government even before Guam and the rest of the United States. Many groups have expressed interest to CNMI government leaders and have been told that, “It’s hard.” The CNMI could have had more than 10,000-plus visitors per month if the government was not sitting on its hands for the past 18 months.

Leadership may change in the year 2006 and this may be one of the best things that could happen for the people. We’ll discuss this more in the future.

Felix Aguon is a resident of Dededo, Guam.