Talks seek to revive Japan tourism

Representatives of the CNMI government and the tourism industry met with Delta Air Lines Japan and Micronesia managing director Masaru Morimoto at the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday to discuss ways to revive the Japan tourism market. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)

Acting governor Ralph DLG Torres and officials of the Marianas Visitors Authority, Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Japan Saipan Travel Association met with Delta Air Lines managing director of Japan and Micronesia Masaru Morimoto at the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday.

The Japan tourism market has been in free fall, with the industry recording a staggering 72-percent drop in arrivals in the last 10 years.

According to HANMI chair Gloria Cavanagh, their association’s data also shows a similar decline.

“We see that our Japan market in its raw numbers—not compared to the actual overall numbers—is decreasing also,” Cavanagh said.

Morimoto said their meeting was a chance to share with the government and the local tourism industry several ideas of what could be done to revive the Japanese market.

“We have a lot of ideas that we shared together. We talked about how to make the consumers’ access around the island easier and convenient and we also talked about how we can expose the beauty of Saipan to consumers in Japan before they even come,” Morimoto said.

Morimoto said they talked about bringing in more sellers from Japan to come to Saipan so that they can see the beauty of the islands for themselves and then sell the Commonwealth’s travel product.

“I think Saipan, before maybe 10 years, 20 years ago, a lot of people came so word of mouth went very well. Now total tourism is declining. I think in the seller side, including ourselves, less people have seen and enjoy the market and the beach here,” Morimoto said.

“What Saipan offers are the most beautiful beaches, white sand, and tropical weather all year-round. Those things have to be talked about by people who actually experienced it,” he added.

This week, Morimoto is bringing in about 50 Delta sales people. Aside from working with the government, they will also do beautification projects such as tree planting and beach cleanup, as well as tour and enjoy the island.

Morimoto said he hopes to at least double the current number of Japanese tourists that are visiting the islands.

“Currently, the number of people that we have from Japan is something like one fourth of what we used to have 10 years ago so [our goal is to] at least double it back,” Morimoto said.

Different approach

“I want to thank Morimoto-san and Delta for their continued support as the only carrier from Japan here that’s scheduled for a direct flight from Japan here non-stop,” Torres told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Toress said he met with Morimoto’s ad hoc team and met with HANMI, JSTA, and MVA officials for a “very productive meeting.” “We will be seeing some positive outcomes out of this meeting. We as a government will address certain concerns that they have and we are going to be revamping the way we are going to market the CNMI in Japan.”

Torres added he would be working closely with Asian partners here.

“We would like to get a different approach, different views, different pictures” in the way the CNMI markets Saipan in Japan, he said. “We need to spend more resources and creative thinking in Japan to entice and increase our Japanese market.”

Issues and improvements

According to MVA managing director Perry Tenorio, the government was able to commit to addressing some concerns raised by tourists’ feedback such as the problem with stray dogs.

“We had much to discuss and we heard and understood some of their concerns regarding our travel product and some of those easily fixable stuff, the government did commit to address those,” Tenorio said.

They also discussed giving more exposure opportunity to the CNMI.

“That means investing more resources in promoting the destination. That’s something that we have to have discussion with the board,” Tenorio said.

Cavanagh said Delta was able to give them some really detailed ideas on where they can start working on.

“We have beauty on our hands and it’s just a matter of how we’re going to make these changes in order to let the new generation in Japan know,” Cavanagh said.

Some of the areas that they are looking at are coordination with large tour agents to bring in individual familiarization tours, improving shuttle buses, as well as giving away free and fresh photos of attractions in the CNMI.

“It’s great to actually hear from them what we can do and what we can work on and it’s a starting point. And having the government there trying to commit to possibly a partnership with Delta for our Japan ad-hoc promotion in the summer was fantastic,” Cavanagh said.

With the hotels, Cavanagh said they talked more of cooperation.

“It was just the cooperation and we have been more than willing in the past and we are really willing now more than ever to try to save the Japan market and get it back to where it’s at least a healthy diverse tourism market in the whole CNMI,” she said.

Flights, ticket prices

Asked if Delta would be bringing back the flights to Saipan that they stopped, Morimoto said they want to.

“We want to. As an airline, we need to follow the demand. If the demand is coming back then we will bring the flight back,” Morimoto said.

“That has to follow with the demand coming back,” he added.

Delta said they have been offering lower prices than before.

“It’s not going to be any lower but hopefully, the value of Saipan as a destination will go up so that the consumer can feel the value for the money,” Morimoto said. (With additional reporting by Dennis B. Chan)