MVA: Over 2K tourists in Feb.

As the number of omicron cases in South Korea continues to decline, many of its residents are starting to travel again, with the CNMI starting to see an increasing number of Korean tourists traveling to Saipan to visit.

According to Judy Torres, Marianas Visitors Authority acting managing director, in February alone, the CNMI saw about 2,663 visitors from South Korea. This was a significant jump, Torres said, from the roughly 1,400 seen in January during South Korea’s omicron surge.

“In February 2022, we received 2,663 visitors (preliminary figure) to the Marianas from Korea, compared to 1,406 visitors in January 2022 when omicron was causing a strong travel reluctance,” she said.

Due to the increasing demand to travel, as seen by the large number of Korean tourists the CNMI saw in February alone, MVA has also decided to extend the TRIP program again to keep the tourism economy recovery going.

Torres explained that even though the TRIP program has been a success so far, the CNMI still has a long way to go in terms of its tourism economy gling back to pre-COVID levels.

“At this point, given current COVID-19 conditions, we can say our plan to use TRIP to jumpstart the Marianas tourism economy has been a success. However, travel worldwide remains low, so we still have a long way to recovery, including the reboot of other source markets,” she said.

Although the TRIP program has been extended, MVA has stopped certain tourist incentives like Travel Bucks as tourists are more self-motivated to travel now.

“Travel Bucks ceased in February 2022, as visitors from Korea are being increasingly self-motivated to travel. At this same time, a free PCR test for visitors returning to Korea is still being offered, and we are looking at limited airline support based on load factor performance—or how many visitors airlines bring in,” Torres said.

Torres explained that, as the number of visitors continue to increase, MVA gradually reduced the TRIP incentives.

“Since the program’s inception in July 2021, we have seen a slow but gradual increase in the number of visitors under the program, so we have systematically been able to adjust or reduce incentives,” she said.

The over 2,000 tourist seen in February is only the beginning as Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig said in a previous Saipan Tribune article that the CNMI is expecting to receive over 600,000 Korean tourists in the next fiscal year alone.