MVA lobbies for Nagoya route

The Marianas Visitors Authority has asked the association of Japanese travel agents on the island to recommend to Japan Airlines to provide Nagoya-Saipan direct service even at least twice a week.

In a letter to Kiyoshi Aikawa, president of the Japan Saipan Travel Association, MVA board chairman David M. Sablan said he is seeking the understanding of all the organization’s members to help revitalize the tourism economy which has been on a downturn due to the financial crisis in Asia.

The request came after MVA found out that JAL has decided to inaugurate its daily direct flights from Nagoya to Guam beginning April 1999. Unfortunately, there has been no mention at all of any scheduled JAL Nagoya flight to Saipan.

Immediately, JSTA sent a letter to the travel agents in Nagoya Prefecture to convince JAL to fly directly to Saipan. Aikawa also invited the travel agents in Nagoya to visit the CNMI with the launching of Visit the Marianas ’99 Campaign.

Japan, the world’s second biggest economy, is mired in its worst recession since World War II, as debt-ridden financial institutions scaled back on lending, starving companies of cash.

Since the financial crisis began more than a year ago, visitor arrivals have been on a double-digit decline. Similarly, arrivals from Japan, the main source of tourist, continue to plunge.

To prove its commitment to the CNMI, JAL launched a Japan Saipan Campaign which will run for three months beginning January targeting some 12,000 Japanese. This December, JAL chartered six flights from Nagoya to Saipan using a Boeing 767 aircraft.

With its huge investment on the island, JAL has independently carried out its promotional campaign to lure more Japanese tourists to visit the island. JAL had invested more than $150 million on the island for the past 15 years as it established La Fiesta Shopping Center, Hotel Nikko Saipan and Tropical Laundry & Linen Services.

JAL has also petitioned the Tokyo government to allow the nation’s flag carrier to reduce by two percent the airfare between Japan and Saipan to attract more passengers and give a lift to CNMI’s sagging tourism economy.

But the cutthroat competition in the travel industry and the currency crisis in Asia have severely affected the arrivals of more tourists on the island.

In fact, many Japanese travel agents have complained of the growing popularity of Korea as a destination for Japanese travelers because of the cheap tour packages.

Based on the November record, tourist arrivals from Japan dropped 16 percent even as MVA officials seek to find ways on how to make the Northern Marianas an attractive destination.

MVA hopes to recapture the lost market share in Japan with the hiring of an advertising agency that will help increase the visibility of the Northern Marianas in its main market.