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Torres courts Japanese investors, visitors
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Posted on Jun 10 2019
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is currently on a weeklong working trip in Japan in hopes of boosting investor confidence and, at the same time, promote the Commonwealth as a vacation destination to the Japanese tourism market. Tokyo is just three hours from Saipan.
Press secretary Kevin Bautista said the governor’s trip has been long planned and is part of his duty as the CNMI’s chief executive to revive the interest of the Japanese tourism market and encourage them to visit the Commonwealth via low-cost carrier Skymark Airlines, Inc.
“Gov. Torres is in Narita for a series of scheduled meetings with Marianas tourism stakeholders, as well as businesses and investors who have expressed an interest in the CNMI,” Bautista said. “With the budget shortfall that we are currently facing, Gov. Torres is being proactive in reaching out to the Japanese market to increase visitor arrivals and economic activity.”
He said that getting back the Japanese market is one way of increasing financial activity in the CNMI.
“Solutions to our current budget shortfall includes increasing our tourism yield in order to stabilize our government’s revenue collections,” said Bautista.
“The governor’s last meetings in Japan included finalizing Skymark Airlines as an airline carrier between Japan and the Marianas, which has revitalized Japanese interest and our tourism market,” added Bautista. “The administration is making every effort to solve our budget crisis by reaching out to our source markets directly.”
