Palacios, Cavanagh optimistic about Japan

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios talks about his recent trip to Japan as acting Marianas Visitors Authority board chair Gloria Cavanagh, right, and acting MVA managing director Judy Torres listen during a news briefing at the Governor’s Office conference room yesterday afternoon. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and acting Marianas Visitors Authority board chair Gloria Cavanagh are optimistic that the CNMI will get more outbound travelers from Japan as the country will soon designate COVID-19 as similar to influenza come May 8 this year.

In a news briefing yesterday afternoon in the governor’s conference room, Palacios and Cavanagh also described their recent four-day trip to Japan as “very fruitful.”

“I am very optimistic that things are [going to] start improving for the Commonwealth. Its [going to] take a little while because Japan is just starting to restart their outbound travel,” Palacios said.

Cavanagh said the whole trip was very fruitful and, with the promotions that the MVA is doing now and with three direct United Airlines flights per week, the bookings are actually doing great now.

“We are already seeing the fruits of our labor of this promotion,” Cavanagh said. “It was a busy trip. We hope there will be major results come out of it.”

Palacios said they went to Japan to talk with tourism partners, from the airlines to major travel agencies, as well as with government officials that are critically important and play major roles in trade, tourism, and commerce.

“This is an effort to kind of try to jumpstart the Japan market,” Palacios said.

The governor said that Japanese arrivals were fairly low even before the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to other markets, hence the need for the Marianas to aggressively market the destination.

“We went ahead and took four days of extensive meetings. We met with the U.S. Embassy. The embassy itself has a commerce desk and we needed to touch base with them to see what kind of assistance and what tips that they can give us when we talk with tourism partners in Japan,” he said.

Palacios said they also paid courtesy visits to some important individuals who in the past helped the CNMI’s tourism industry.

Most of these visits were intended to reinvigorate the Japanese market, he said.

The governor said Japan is just starting its outbound tourism as COVID-19 was an issue and continues to be an issue for the Japanese travelers, but domestic travel in Japan has already recovered and is already robust.

It’s the outbound international travel that is way behind, so that’s what the Japan government is trying to incentivize and jumpstart, he added.

“The key points of what we want to do to reconnect with all our partners to see what we can do, what they can do to reinvigorate and improve the tourism arrival from Japan and what we need to do as a destination,” he said.

Cavanagh echoed Palacios that the Japan domestic travel industry has already recovered because both the national government as well as the provincial governments of Japan have been subsidizing it and will continue subsidizing it until this July.

She said the Japanese are traveling domestically because it’s so highly subsidized.

Come May 8 this year, though, Japan is actually going to change the COVID-19 category to that will put it in a category that’s more like an influenza, Cavanagh said.

“What that means is all these restrictions as far as vaccinations, to taking tests, and everything will go away,” she said.

Cavanagh said it’s going to be an open-door policy where the Japanese will be able to travel to a foreign destination and return and not worry about long lines at the airport or having to take the test.

“We’re kind of hoping that because it is happening on May 8, that we will be receiving more outbound,” she said.

Cavanagh said Palacios also mentioned the possibility that the outbound travel will be subsidized by the national government in Japan.

“So that’s one of the other reasons why he talked with Japanese officials. Because there is a program where they are subsidizing or helping with the outbound travel, and we hope that the CNMI will be on top of their mind,” she said.