‘More flights, hotel rooms keys to boosting Japan arrivals’
Tenorio
Securing low cost carriers that will fly to the Commonwealth and adding more hotel rooms are key to boosting Japanese arrivals to the islands, according to Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Perry Tenorio.
In response to lawmakers’ call to rebuild the Japan market during MVA’s meeting with the 19th Legislature on Monday, Tenorio said that securing more flights and building more hotels could help boost tourist arrivals from the islands’ once No. 1 source market.
“The key to rebuilding Japanese arrivals is to secure new flights, particularly from Osaka and Nagoya, which used to be important source markets for the CNMI. With the rise of low-cost carriers in Japan, MVA is targeting all the major low-cost carriers to launch new service to the CNMI, just as Jeju Air has done from Korea. This will be the single most important key to rebuilding arrivals from Japan back to record heights,” Tenorio told Saipan Tribune.
The other is to ensure that the CNMI has enough hotel rooms to accommodate the added tourist traffic.
“With soaring arrival numbers from Korea and China, total visitor arrivals to the CNMI last month were at record levels and more than replaced the declines we are seeing from Japan and Russia. The current new development of hotel rooms in the CNMI is urgently needed to allow us to rebuild arrivals from Japan back to historic levels,” Tenorio said.
The peak of Japanese arrivals to the CNMI was in 2005 with 352,099 visitors, just before Japan Airlines cancelled flights to the Commonwealth.
The lack of airlift to replace the lost Japan Airlines service from Osaka and Narita and the lost Delta Air Lines service from Nagoya meant that CNMI arrival numbers from Japan have fallen steadily since then.
The Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and the consumption tax hike in April 2014 also significantly impacted Japanese visitor numbers, reaching a low of 110,234 visitors to the CNMI last year, according to Tenorio.
2015 initiatives
MVA is launching a variety of public relations and marketing programs in Japan in order to start rebuilding arrivals, including airlift development, re-branding, and visibility.
According to Tenorio, MVA has appointed an airline specialist within MVA Japan to work aggressively with all potential low-cost carriers in Japan to have them consider the CNMI as their next new destination.
The results of a Japan market research also showed a need to rebrand and refresh the CNMI’s destination image in Japan.
The MVA’s key rebranding vehicle is the “Flower Islands” branding, which is currently being developed, and MVA is working with all the major travel agents in Japan to launch new “Flower Island” packages and promotions, including trade familiarization tours and training programs throughout Japan.
Another is positioning the CNMI as the “Sports Islands,” targeting the active outdoors enthusiasts and the sports enthusiasts seeking to participate in events such as the Saipan Marathon.
“We continue to maximize exposure for the CNMI through a wide range of trade and PR with a variety of key stakeholders including Japan Saipan Travel Association, Hotel Association of the Northern Marianas Islands, Japan Marianas Tourism Club, and the MVA’s Japan Adhoc committee as well as the Micronesia-Kai that includes planning managers of wholesalers and airline partners in Japan,” Tenorio said.
My question is why have the Japan carriers periodically instituted additional flights and then have dropped them? Could it be that there are not enough seats being filled thus it makes it unprofitable?
So why would any other airlines get into this route when the existing ones cannot fill their additional seats?
There have been additional seats goint to Hawaii that remain full. Another airlines or a call to make more seats available wil not make any differrence.
It seems that these MVA keep repeating the same failed attempts hopeing for a different result, much like our outdated failed elected.
The Japan market will never substantially increase due to this Admin selling out to the Chinese (and Korean as Fitial did)
Perry has been singing the “more rooms” song for many years he’s starting to sound like a scratched up 45! Why don’t you cut back on your off-island trips and try to remedy the fiasco that is Cape Air. Maybe if we had RELIABLE air service between Guam and Saipan, we could actually piggy back on island hops. I hope Eloy fires him. The guy is not worth the $70K+ salary he earns to travel on our dime!
I was back home for a visit after 19 years of being away. A LOT has changed. One thing that stood out when I first arrived was the abandoned buildings such as hotels. They were such eyesores. Mr. Tenorio thinks building more hotels is the simple solution to attract more tourists. How about looking into renovating those empty hotels instead of filling the island with more hotels to potentially be left empty. I’m not sure if a cost assessment has been done to determine which is more economical between renovating and building. With the way the economy is, he should think simplicity and cost efficiency. If his idea goes through and fails, the island will later look like something out of a zombie movie. Just stating my opinion. By the way, Hafa Adai to all people of the CNMI.