‘Increase in Japanese tourists could cover loss of China market’

The panelists of the coronavirus mitigation conference last Tuesday at the Saipan World Resort Taga Hall. (Kimberly A. Bautista)
 

The Marianas Visitors Authority is hoping that more Japanese tourists arriving for the rest of the fiscal year would be enough to take up the slack in the China market.

In a PowerPoint presentation he did at the Coronavirus Mitigation Conference at Saipan World Resort last Tuesday, Marianas Visitors Authority marketing manager Thomas Kim said the MVA is hoping that the losses the CNMI expects to see from the China market will be offset by an increase in the arrival of Japanese tourists.

Kim said that MVA is looking at a projected 48,000 tourist arrivals from Japan this fiscal year.

“[We’re expecting] an increase in Japanese tourists. Japan is looking to go to an estimate of 48,000 visitors for fiscal year 2020,” he said.

The increase in tourist numbers, Kim said, is attributed to Skymark Airline’s daily direct flights from Japan to the CNMI.

That does not mean that everything is going to be hunky-dory for the CNMI’s tourism industry. Kim said that MVA expects to lose over 47,000 Chinese tourists for the rest of the fiscal year. MVA projects zero arrivals from China for the remainder of the fiscal year.

“Taking into consideration that the Korea market and Japan market are doing fairly well with visitor arrivals, that would definitely help cover for the numbers that we are expecting to lose from the China market. I can’t say that we’re OK, considering that China is our second largest market, but we are trying our best to get those numbers covered from other markets,” he said.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, MVA projects zero Chinese tourist arrivals starting February until the end of the fiscal year, which means a loss of about 47,467 Chinese tourists.

The follows the issuance of a notice from Chinese authorities—effective immediately—instructing Chinese airlines to ban outbound travel from China. The notice is being looked as a means to contain the virus, called 2019-nCoV, within China, where the virus is believed to have originated from.

“The Chinese authorities have sent out a notice to Chinese [airlines] encouraging them to ban outbound travels from China. The notice was sent out on Jan. 26 from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China,” said Kim.

In related news, the director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, met with Chinese president Xi Jinping yesterday to talk about the containment measures in Wuhan, public health measures in other cities and provinces, further studies on the severity and transmissibility of the virus, sharing data, and for China to share biological material with WHO.

These measures are expected to advance scientific understanding of the virus and contribute to the creation of vaccines and treatments.