Our economic shotgun wedding

Saipan has something of a reputation as a honeymoon destination in some market segments, but it looks like we’re getting involved even earlier in the process. Amongst the Japanese, Saipan has become a popular place to get hitched.

And why not? After all, as professional wit Oscar Wilde noted, a man is not complete until he’s married….Then he’s finished.

So what better place to start the finish than Saipan? For the Japanese, it’s an affordable proposition. Matrimonial tradition carries a heavy price tag in much of Japan, and when you hear about wedding costs they’re frequently in the $30,000 category. Some couples actually resort to borrowing money to finance these big shindigs.

Not that it’s dirt cheap here. Rentals for wedding dresses frequently run from $300 to $1,000. The parents are often brought down for the occasion, so we’re looking at a few grand for the occasion.

A few hotels have wedding chapels, with a decidedly Christian flavor. It’s a western cultural flavor for our eastern visitors. The trappings of America are indeed a draw.

The wedding niche won’t single handedly redeem our tourism industry, of course. But it’s a solid and growing segment, and one that meshes with the demographics of our visitors, who tend to be young and budget conscious.

The CNMI’s tourism industry will live or die by this same demographic segment. As long as we’re an affordable and reasonably pleasant destination, the combination of price, climate, available activities, and the draw of the American flag are enough to keep the industry viable. This is, of course, a pretty common sense outlook.

Common sense, however, isn’t exactly an abundant commodity in some circles. The Commonwealth’s tourism industry will probably recover in lock step with Japan’s and Korea’s economic revivals, but I don’t think the Commonwealth will be able to increase market share against competitors such as Guam.

There is, in fact, a glass ceiling here for the tourism industry. When the industry reaches a certain threshold of success again, we’ll see our old friends envy and jealousy slither out from the shadows, as a lot of people say it’s not fair for these glitzy hotels and their well paid executives to be doing so well, while some folks languish in economic obscurity. As in much of the world, an entitlement mentality will severely limit the prospects for economic growth.

But in the final analysis, the CNMI doesn’t have to do a whole lot right for the tourism industry to bump along…it just has to refrain from doing too many things wrong.

If, however, the tourism industry thinks that we’ll emerge from this crisis with a new-found appreciation for the importance of the business sector, it’s wrong. Although our Japanese tourists might enjoy their nuptials here, the Commonwealth’s shotgun wedding to the business sector remains problematic and bumpy.