Tourist arrivals drop 4 percent

Due to reduction in airline seat capacity, visitor arrivals in the month of May declined 4 percent to 39,558 compared to the same period last year, according to the Marianas Visitors Authority.

Airlines seats from Guam alone, where many tourists take their connecting flight to the Northern Marianas, plunged 38 percent. Currently, there are 4,050 airline seats from Guam on a weekly basis against 6,486 logged last year.

Members of the Japan-Saipan Travel Association blame the lack of direct flight to Saipan for its shrinking market, a situation that benefits neighboring Guam where direct air service is available. Tour operators explain tourists frown on the 30 minutes wait they had to endure in Hagatna airport before reaching Saipan.

Arrivals from Japan, CNMI’s main market, dropped 6 percent last month as a result of slow economic recovery and low consumer confidence.

The termination of Continental Airline’s Osaka-Saipan direct flights took its toll heavily on the islands, losing approximately 1,000 visitors from the region. Although Japan Airlines has experienced a double-digit growth from its inbound Tokyo and Osaka direct flights as a result of its aggressive marketing blitz, such increase failed to offset the decline from other market regions.

Korea, the second largest market, has consistently shown improvement in its arrivals record as it jumped 88 percent.

However, the third largest market, the United States, suffered a 25 percent drop compared to the same period last year. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, US arrivals have recorded five months (October-February) of continues decline.

On the other hand, March to April arrivals record indicate positive growth due to the visits of several US Navy ships during these months. Without the visits of American military personnel, tourist arrivals in the CNMI would have registered zero growth for the month of April as it accounted for 5 percent of the total 39,294 arrivals.

The remaining Northeast Asia market regions all recorded increases for the period except Taiwan and China – alternative markets which the local tourism office hopes to develop.

Hong Kong arrivals increased 20 percent during the period. In contrast, arrivals from Taiwan and mainland China registered a 44 percent and 18 percent plunge, respectively.

Although visitor arrivals record as a whole has shown great improvement compared to last year’s record when it suffered a double-digit decline, it would be misleading to conclude that the island’s tourism economy is already on its way to recovery.

Bart Jackson, board member and vice chairman of the PR&Ad Committee, said improvement in the current slump in the island’s main economy depends mainly on the increase of air seats from the current number of airlines servicing the CNMI.

MVA has been working with the Aviation Task Force in enticing new airlines to service the Northern Marianas in a move to save the half-a-billion-dollar tourism industry. Efforts seem to be working well as Korean visitors showed a steady increase in arrivals.

Since last year, Japan Airlines has been offering charter flights to increase Japanese visitor arrivals after Continental Airlines decided to further cut back its direct service from Saipan to key cities in Japan.