‘Tinian visitors higher than MVA count’

Tinian mayor special adviser Ike Quichocho has expressed doubts over the tourist arrival statistics provided by the Marianas Visitors Authority for the island, saying it is “too low” for Tinian.

“We’ve been asking the MVA for statistics that accurately reflects the actual visitors to the island, but it’s not happening,” said Quichocho in an interview on Saipan Thursday.

Based on the Fiscal Year 2006 statistics report by MVA, Tinian only received 64,083 visitors, representing a mere 15 percent of total arrivals in the CNMI.

“That’s too low. We are getting way more than that,” said Quichocho.

MVA said the CNMI welcomed a total of 443,812 tourists from October 2005 to September 2006.

Quichocho said the MVA does not record how many tourists actually get to the ferry or the plane to visit Tinian.

“They only base their figures from the Customs report at the airport. Most of the time, the tourists only say Saipan as their destination, but what happens to those who decide to go to Tinian from Saipan? We’ve got a lot of those visitors,” said the mayor’s adviser.

Quichocho said a more accurate arrivals report on Tinian must be produced since it affects the attractiveness of Tinian among investors.

“It affects business decisions. Investors look at the tourism trend, how many people visit the island,” he said.

He recalled that a business group from Hawaii once made a presentation citing a mere 500 tourist arrivals on the island.

“Can you believe that we’re only getting 500? They got it from MVA,” said Quichocho.

The MVA’s FY 2006 report, however, shows “inter-island arrivals.” MVA said that overall, Tinian’s inter-island arrivals fell slightly from 68,758 in FY 2005 to 64,083 in FY 2006. For September 2006, it plunged by 40 percent. From 5,612 visitors in September 2005, it said that Tinian received only 3,389 tourists this year.

It said that overnight visitors went down by 41 percent last month while day visitors dropped by 30 percent. MVA listed 2,813 Tinian overnight visitors and 576 day visitors last month.

Most of these tourists are from China, totaling 1,377 last month, followed by Japanese totaling 772, and Koreans totaling 215.

Overall, the CNMI registered a 16-percent decline in tourist arrivals in FY 2006—a loss of nearly 100,000 visitors. This decline is due primarily to the pullout of Japan Airlines in October 2005.

The data showed that the CNMI lost 95,971 Japanese tourists during the fiscal year or from October 2005 to September 2006. From 376,263 in FY2005, Japan arrivals went down to 280,292 in FY 2006. JAL used to bring some 155,000 passengers a year.

The FY 2006 arrival total showed the following:

– Japan 280,292 9 [25 percent decline];

– South Korea 80,764 [24 percent up];

– China 36,978 [14 percent up];

– Guam 21,513 [7 percent down];

– United States 11,497 [32 percent down];

– Philippines 3,690 [4 percent down]

– Hong Kong 1,407 [56 percent down]

– Taiwan 756 [73 percent down];

– Other areas 6,915 [17 percent up].