MVA to launch new English website at Oct. 11 meeting

The Marianas Visitors Authority reports 50,000 hits in August 2011 to its Japanese- and Korea-language websites, the countries of origin of 75 percent of all visitors to this beach resort destination. The MVA will also introduce its new English website to its membership at its Oct. 11 General Membership Meeting. This project has been underway for several months now and is nearing completion. Russia and China, which account for most of the remaining visitor arrivals, also have language specific websites for travelers to find information about Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

The MVA’s offshore websites are maintained by web professionals in Japan and Korea.

In August 2011, there were over 40,000 hits to the Japanese site japan.mymarianas.com and approximately 8,000 visits to the Korea-language website mymarianas.co.kr. Both websites are updated with current news, promotions, and travel information several times a month.

“In prioritizing our available funding, the MVA has created and now maintains and regularly updates websites for customers in our primary markets of Japan and Korea,” said MVA managing director Perry Tenorio. “Having a digital presence in those key countries is not optional, due to their importance to our overall arrival numbers and the web-savvy nature of the residents there.”

The MVA also maximizes its web marketing by utilizing search engine optimization and search engine marketing to achieve a higher rank for the MVA Japan and Korea websites in major search engines such as Yahoo! Japan, Google and Bing (previously MSN Live Search).

On these three major search engines, the MVA’s Japan website ranks among the top three hits when Internet users search terms including: Saipan, Saipan Island, Saipan Sightseeing, Saipan map, Tinian hotel, Tinian Golf, Rota Golf, Northern Mariana Islands, Mariana Islands, and Saipan spa.

“It’s true that less than 3 percent of our visitors speak English as a first language,” said Tenorio. “Both websites marketing to our primary tourism markets are up-to-date, and we now have been focusing our limited funding on a new and more interactive English-language website. We look forward to introducing key elements of that to our members next week, followed by a public launching sometime this month. We are also developing sites on You Tube, Facebook, and Twitter to expose those markets to the Northern Marianas.”

As already available in Japan and Korea, MVA members will have the opportunity to promote their businesses on the English website, as well. For more information on MVA membership benefits, contact Val Tenorio at vtenorio@mymarianas.com or John Palacios at jpalacios@mymarianas.com or call (670) 664-3210.

The MVA’s general membership meeting on Oct. 11 will begin at 10am at Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort and Spa. (MVA)