Interior turns down MVA’s grant request

The federal government has declined the Marianas Visitors Authority’s grant request for tourist exit surveys, saying it did not want to have to do the same for the tourism offices of the six other U.S. insular areas.

According to MVA research manager Judy Torres, MVA had asked the U.S. Department of the Interior for a grant, amounting to $215,902, to conduct monthly touris exit surveys and a promotional tracker for the Japan and Korea markets for a period of one year.

But in an email to Torres, an Interior Department official wrote that after considering MVA’s request “with great seriousness,” the Office of Insular Affairs had decided not to fund the activity.

“A significant part of our decision-making here was that, in fairness to the other three U.S. insular areas and to the three freely associated states, if OIA chose to fund this [technical assistance] request for NMI, we would have to do the same for the other six insular/FAS visitors’ authorities.

“If we did that, we would not have TA funds sufficient for those activities which are definitely outside an insular/FAS government’s capacity,” wrote Joseph H. McDermott, acting OIA director of policy.

The Washington, D.C.-based official maintained that an insular government has alternatives to conducting exit surveys.

“Tourists visiting NMI pay taxes, which, in turn, fund, among other things, MVA, which could use a part of those revenues to underwrite exit surveys as a matter of routine. In such a way MVA could measure tourist satisfaction and gauge visitor spending,” McDermott said.

Torres said MVA is now reviewing its options, one of which is to apply for a smaller amount to fund a smaller scale project such as quarterly tourist exit surveys.

Nevertheless, she stressed the importance of conducting the survey for a period of one year.

Doing so, she said, “will further improve our ability to focus our marketing and advertising efforts accordingly, based on the invaluable information and framework that will be identified by the MVA tourist exit survey and promotional tracker.”

In addition to the tourist exit survey, the promotional tracker will assess the impact of MVA’s marketing promotions and advertisements in support of efforts to increase visitor arrivals to the CNMI, she added.