‘Tourists want to see Tinian, Rota events, but…’

Korean and Japanese tourists do want to visit Tinian and Rota, but the biggest barrier to that is the lack of a frequent, reliable, and affordable air service, according to Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Christopher Attao Concepcion.

In his presentation about MVA’S budget for fiscal year 2024 before the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee last week, Concepcion also underscored the need for event organizers on the two islands to commit much earlier to holding their events on specific dates, so that MVA can properly market them and make them more accessible to visitors. Giving tourists short notice on when an event is going to happen on Tinian or Rota is going to limit the number of visitors who could attend them, Concepcion said.

In the case of air services, he pointed out that, as an example, Star Marianas states on their website that, once their flight is full, a person can no longer purchase tickets online.

“And visitors are not aware that you can physically go to the airport or call them up to make a reservation,” said Concepcion, adding that, without these improvements, visitor volume on Rota and Tinian will always remain a little bit low.

Also, the reality is that seven seats per flight at three flights a day to Rota is very challenging for the market to increase arrivals, he said.

The good thing, Concepcion said, is that “we know there’s interest [for tourists to visit Tinian or Rota]. That’s a good thing,” adding that MVA’s outdoor ads and digital ads in Korea increased traffic to the MVA’s website by almost 2,000%.

In terms of promoting Tinian and Rota events, Concepcion said they are in active communication with the two islands’ mayor’s offices and they are helping them out, giving them out their best guidance for their events.

“We’re creating layouts to promote their events, even in foreign languages. We want to drive traffic there from our source markets of Japan, Korea, and elsewhere,” he said.

Concepcion said they need event organizers to commit to the dates and times at least three months in advance so that MVA could get that information to Korea and Japan and they will have time to promote it.

Concepcion said he, MVA acting board chair Gloria Cavanagh, and Gov. Arnold I. Palacios recently visited Korea and Japan, and everyone told them that they are quite interested in bringing visitors to these events on Tinian and Rota, but the information about them usually comes out slowly.

He said they are working closely with mayor’s offices to speed things up.

“We’re highlighting each island’s appeal that works,” the managing director said.

Concepcion said they want to bring back KONQER if possible, as well as Ironman 70.3, but that it is really dependent on whether or not they get adequate funding.

KONQER is a multi-country obstacle course circuit, while Ironman 70.3 is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races.

Tinian