Locals not included in tourism marketing

The Democratic Party, led by gubernatorial candidates Edward Tofila Deleon Guerrero and Danny Quitigua, want all voters to know how locals are not being included in our tourist industry and why it is so important to elect Democrats, especially when there are plans for a major economic development with the casino and locals are not included in the business equation. At the source of the challenge to improve the tourist industry are the present marketing approach and the tactics used to generate and collect tourist dollars in foreign countries, which eliminates local businesses and our ability to collect all the potential taxes due.

Travel agents in foreign countries are presently focusing on the low end of the tourist market that offers special complete packages for tourists at a cheap price. When a tourist purchases a package deal in their country they pay for their hotel room, their tourist activities, restaurant dinners, etc. The CNMI is at the mercy of whatever we are told by foreign business owners when it comes to collecting taxes. Voters need to know that most of the tourists dollars collected in foreign countries never reach the CNMI because tourists are given coupons to use in the CNMI. There are no CNMI taxes applicable to many of these purchases because they are conducted on foreign soil nor is there any accountability on how much was collected. The only money that local businesses receive is mostly from straggler tourists who are not attached to a package deal and tourists with a break or some extra time to stray away from their package, meaning local businesses only get the “leftover dollars” from the travel agents’ coupon deals.

Tourists come to the CNMI to experience our islands and the Chamolinian culture first and foremost but locals are being left out of the business equation, which is what the Democratic leaders of Tofila and Quitugua want to fix by limiting the sales of CNMI tourist activities in foreign countries to hotel and air fare. Tourist will have to purchase coupon packets within the CNMI’s borders that will include locally owned businesses. The local dancers only work for hotels when they should have their own locations for local cultural events like we once had but locals have been outsmarted and eliminated from the business equation. There has also been a decline in local dance groups over the past decade because the coupon package deals for tourists have eliminated the cultural events that locals once conducted as a private business. When there are busloads of tourists being taken to handpicked coupon restaurants that doesn’t serve local food, it is obvious why locals are left out and there is no local food restaurant run by locals for tourists. Even the tour guides are not local and some have only recently moved to the CNMI. The Democrats want to make sure that all tour guides are local people who are best equipped to tell the CNMI’s story.

The Democratic leaders also want to change the marketing approach from the low end tourists to the middle and high income bracket as these tourists will be more likely to be repeat visitors and will not purchase a package but explore the CNMI more freely as package deals usually take up most of a tourist’s time. If you care about locals being included more in the tourist industry and the tourism package deals, vote for a new, different and better government.

Ambrose M Bennett
PIO, Democratic Party