‘CNMI needs to be repackaged as destination’

With the slump in tourist arrivals from Japan following the pullout of Japan Airlines, the CNMI needs to be repackaged as a destination to cater to more affluent tourists, according to Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Charles V. Cepeda.

“One clear solution to the JAL pullout is to get another airline, but as we all know, it’s a complicated issue involving slot availability. But there are things that we can do within the islands that would mark up our rating as a tropical destination,” said Cepeda.

The CNMI, he said, has been labeled “a cheap destination,” which actually means that travel agents do not make money.

“When travel agents do not make money, they won’t promote the islands,” he said.

That cheap label, he said, results from cheap hotel room rates and cheap restaurants. Consequently, the islands are left to a type of tourists that opt for cheap items.

This trend can be changed if the CNMI makes major improvements in its infrastructure, hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions.

“We need to attract more tourists who can afford to pay a little higher. We need to clean up our islands, improve our hotels, upgrade our facilities, upgrade our services in a way that travel agents won’t have a choice but to choose the CNMI,” he said.

He said the world has yet to discover the NMI’s “greatest jewel islands,” referring to Tinian and Rota.

Rota, in particular, he said, “is a small but very beautiful island.” Although it may be more expensive for tourists to go to Rota, he said the CNMI can promote the island “to tourists who can afford it.”

“It’s not for everybody, just like Saipan is not for everybody, but there’s a market for this kind of destinations,” he said.

In a recent study, the Marianas Visitors Authority said that about 76 percent of surveyed Japanese tourists, after visiting the CNMI, said that they would be willing to pay more—as much as 15 percent—for their package to the Northern Marianas. Based on the same survey, MVA said that Japanese travelers see no reason why packages to the CNMI should be priced lower than Guam.

It said that 49 percent of Japanese visitors to the CNMI indicate that cost was either a minor factor or not a factor at all in choosing a trip to the CNMI—“an indication that for half the Japanese market, there is an opportunity to create higher-priced packages and reach a higher-end Japanese traveler.”

MVA statistics for October 2005 showed a 21-percent decline in tourist arrivals from Japan compared with October 2004. This was attributed to the pullout of Japan Airlines last month.

MVA statistics showed there were 22,491 Japanese tourists who came to the CNMI last month. In October 2004, there were 28,586 Japanese visitors.

Overall, tourist arrivals in the CNMI declined by 11.55 percent in October this year compared with last year’s. MVA recorded 35,418 tourists in October this year. In October 2004, the number was at 40,042.