May arrivals up at 44 pct.

Visitors arrivals to the Marianas increased 44 percent in May 2017 compared to May 2016.

According to the Marianas Visitors Authority, arrivals to the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota registered 50,949 visitors in May 2017 compared to 35,466 visitors received in May 2016. This is the third highest May arrivals in the history of the Marianas; the record for May arrivals was set in 1997 with 65,367 visitors.

Arrivals from South Korea jumped 80 percent higher to 24,987 visitors, representing over half of all tourist arrivals to the Marianas for the month. Arrivals from Korea are up 82 percent overall this fiscal year, driven by direct flight services via five airlines: Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, Jin Air, Eastar, and T’way. Arrivals from Korea are expected to steadily increase due to additional Eastar charter flights in August and due to an increase in Busan-Saipan service to four times weekly by Jeju Air beginning June 6.

Arrivals from China grew 26 percent compared to May 2017 to 18,557 visitors. Labor Day and dragon boat festival holidays in May brought more Chinese visitors to the Marianas, while advertisement on bus and residential elevators gave Saipan, Tinian, and Rota wider exposures to customers in second-tier cities.

Arrivals from Japan are at 4,094 visitors in May, about 7 percent lower versus May 2016. With Delta’s single daily flight from Tokyo-Narita, load factors are over 70 percent for the month, which is positive news for the Japan market. Delta has agreed to add Saipan to their ongoing beach resort promotional campaign beginning July, which includes promotions to Hawaii, Palau and Guam. The MVA has recently conducted familiarization tours from Sendai and Fukuoka with Asiana Airlines and Jin Air, respectively, and both airlines have agreed to begin selling package tours to the Marianas from those two cities. The MVA is also in intense negotiations with several LCCs to launch new service from unserved cities in Japan, which will help increase arrivals from this key market, if successful.

The Marianas also received one cruise ship arrival during the month with 85 passengers aboard.

Economic highlights

In South Korea, Liberal Democratic Party candidate Moon Jae-in received over 41.08 percent votes to be elected as the country’s 19th president on May 10. There is expected to be a dramatic change in government policies ranging from the economy and national security to North Korea. The average USD/won exchange rate in May was 1,126.80 won, a slight increase from the April rate of 1,124.19 won.

China is widely expected to become the world’s largest outbound travel market, with a rapidly developing and increasingly wealthy population, all keen and hungry to explore international travel destinations both near and far. Since 2010, the number of outbound travelers from China has posted solid growth, year on the year. By the year 2014, China delivered a record-breaking number of 100-million international travelers. A mere two years later, 2016 saw explosive growth of 19.5 percent, resulting in 122 million travelers.

The Japanese government has kept unchanged its overall assessment of the economy for May—that it is recovering gradually, although pockets of weakness remain. The economy is expected to recover gradually as employment and wages continue to improve. Monthly average rate for U.S. dollar to Japanese yen exchange in May 2017 was 112.20, up from 110.14 the previous month of April. (MVA)