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Tan: MVA should be adequately funded
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Posted on May 17 2012
By Clarissa V. David
Reporter
Reporter
With tourism as the CNMI’s only industry, the Marianas Visitors Authority should be adequately funded to sustain its marketing and promotion efforts, according to Tan Holdings president Jerry Tan.
Tan said Tuesday that MVA, the economic engine of the islands, has been way underfunded, making it unable to compete with rival destinations in terms of marketing the Commonwealth.
“We must support MVA and fund [it] properly and sufficiently to allow [it] to do a good job. As you know, we’re not alone,” he said.
While he recognizes the local government’s financial difficulties, Tan maintained that other destinations like Guam and Hawaii are also suffering from the same economic downturn yet “they put out a lot of money to market their destination.
He said it is crucial for CNMI to catch up with these other destinations. “All the other competing destinations are spending millions of dollars promoting their places. We must also be out there aggressively promoting the CNMI in our key markets, which are Japan, China, Korea, and Russia,” he added.
Tan, former MVA board chair, said that insufficient funding has made it “very difficult” to advertise the CNMI as a destination for tourists.
MVA’s budget submission for fiscal year 2013 is at $11.6 million.
According to Tan, the government should start taking a careful look at getting MVA the funding it needs to promote the islands and in turn revive its “only industry.”
Tan, whose company will be launching Saipan Air on July 1, said the government cannot survive just by cutting costs. He stressed the need to increase revenues as well.
