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Rota gets smallest cut in tourist arrivals
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Posted on Oct 22 2006
Rota remains the least explored destination among the three inhabited islands of the Northern Marianas, with statistics showing that a mere 5 percent of the nearly 500,000 tourists went to the island in fiscal year 2006.
At the same time, Rota’s arrival seemed to have not been hugely affected by the pullout of Japan Airlines since the level of arrivals essentially stayed the same.
Data from the Marianas Visitors Authority showed that Rota received 21,087 tourists from October 2005 to September 2006.
In FY 2005 or prior to the pullout of JAL, arrivals to the island totaled 21,821.
The MVA data does not show the actual arrivals from each country of origin during the year, except for September.
September statistics showed that Rota arrivals fell by 28 percent.
From 2,073 in September 2005, arrivals this year totaled only 1,448, the bulk of which came through Guam.
Arrivals from Guam totaled 1,046 last month, a 20 percent decline from September 2005.
Of this, 883 visitors were from Japan, 108 from Guam, 39 from the U.S., and 16 from others.
Inter-island arrivals totaled 442 last month, a 42-percent decline from last year.
These visitors included 142 from the Philippines, 138 from the U.S. including Guam, 103 from Japan, 38 from others, and 21 from Korea.
Overall, the CNMI lost nearly 100,000 tourists in fiscal year 2006 due primarily to the pullout of JAL in October 2005.
From Japan alone, the CNMI lost 95,971 tourists from October 2005 to Sept. 2006.
From 376,263 in FY2005, Japan arrivals went down to 280,292 in FY 2006.
JAL used to bring some 155,000 passengers a year.
MVA statistics showed that a total of 443,812 tourists arrived in the Northern Marianas during the period, a 16 percent drop from FY05, which saw 529,557 tourists.
Of the total arrivals in FY 2006, Saipan got the biggest portion of 429,267, while Tinian had 64,083, some 15 percent share of the arrivals.
