HANMI renews pitch to JAL for more flights

The Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands has asked Japan Airlines to consider having a Nagoya-Saipan-Guam or Nagoya-Saipan flight at least three times a week to help boost visitor arrivals in the CNMI.

In a letter sent to Yukihiru Enomoto, JAL district manager, HANMI president Ron D. Sablan has pledged to assist the airline in making it a successful route.

JAL has been carrying out its own promotional campaign to assist the Northern Marianas’ ailing tourism economy, which has been battered by the Asia’s economic crisis.

Next month, JAL will provide seven additional flights from Nagoya, Fukuoka and Osaka using either a DC10 or a B767 in these routes. Arrivals from Japan have declined since the reduction in flights by Continental Micronesia to Saipan due to the airline’s huge losses.

Saipan hotels enjoyed several days of high occupancy during Japan’s Golden Week last month. Immediately after, average hotel occupancy went back to 60 percent.

The brief high occupancy rate by many hotels due to the influx of Japanese tourists during this period only shows that the island’s tourism economy has not recovered since the decline of the Asian economies in July 1997.

Based on the arrival record of the Marianas Visitors Authority, travelers from Japan have shown a steady increase after suffering a double-digit decline for a long time.

Japan, the island’s main source of tourists, has been battling its worst recession since World War II. Tour operators are hoping that economic reforms being undertaken by the Tokyo government would stimulate international travel.

The Northern Marianas would have become a more favorable destination for Japanese had Continental Micronesia did not drop its direct service from key cities in Japan to Saipan, said Iwao Sakai, president of the Japan-Saipan Travel Association. He said Japanese travelers frowned on the long waiting hours in Guam. “They don’t like to wait for a long time in Guam so they do not come here anymore. Maybe if there’s a change in schedule there would be more visitors coming here,” he said.

International travel experts have urged the CNMI to tap the growing number of students who join school excursions since this market segment is seen to shift from domestic tours to foreign travel. There has been coordination between carriers and travel agents to promote school excursions to many destinations.

Various companies and organizations in Japan are undergoing restructuring which will lead to more cost-conscious operation such as cut in employee welfare tours.

Based on the analysis made by JAL, among the factors that will affect the popularity of destinations include the change in air seat capacity, the sharp decline in the number of young women going abroad and change in Japanese attitude toward travel.

Foreign carriers that have cut down on flights from Kansai and other local airports have influenced the operation of package tours in different destinations.

Cost-conscious travelers from Japan prefer to fly to nearby Asian countries, especially Korea which will continue to be a major destination among Japanese tourists. The inclination of Japanese toward nature promises to favor areas less visited by tourists like Scandinavia and New Zealand.