Eco-wishful thinking

As the Commonwealth searches for economic redemption, the specter of mining the eco-tourism potential of our northern islands has been raised. Can this idea fly? Or, more to the point, WILL it fly?

The northern islands I’ve visited (Sarigan, Anatahan, Pagan, and Farallon de Medinilla) are sure beautiful and intriguing. But we can safely take Farallon de Medinilla off the eco-tourism list since bombing ranges aren’t conducive to allowing travelers getting a good night’s sleep. If someone wanted to sleep in a war zone they’d just book a room in east Los Angeles.

There are a lot of places to start pulling at the yarn of northern island eco-tourism. I’ll yank on this string: transportation. Of all the islands, only Pagan has a runway. The runway isn’t paved, and half of it was gobbled up by lava, but what remains is certainly usable for the right types of airplanes.

As far as I’m aware, air transportation to the other islands would require helicopters. That’s a fine idea, but helicopters are more expensive to operate than airplanes are. The fare from Saipan to Sarigan and back would probably be more than a discount ticket from Tokyo to Saipan and back. In other words, this sure as heck wouldn’t be feasible for the budget market.

And, looking at airplanes, the over water distance to Pagan is far too vast for a cheap single engine “put put” airplane to cover. Any commercial air service would have to involve helicopters, or would have to involve multi-engine airplanes. Again, you’re probably looking at air fare that would rival Tokyo or Seoul to Saipan round trip costs.

Other logistical problems are, to be sure, surmountable. Housing can be built, water caught and stored, sewage taken care of, etc. This all assumes, of course, that some investors are willing to step up to the plate and that the CNMI decides to go in that direction, which is entirely another subject, and one that will be laden with doubt.

More doubts enter my head when we ponder the higher priced eco-tourism market. The CNMI is a budget, package tourist destination. Some folks don’t like to hear this but, as the Commonwealth has found out the hard way, using wishful thinking instead of real thinking is a recipe for disaster when it comes to marketing tourism to our Asian markets.

And the fact is that our Asian markets aren’t all that happy with us right now. Hotel occupancy rates here are dipping below 60 percent. If we’re a budget destination, then these are the times when our low prices should be muscling in budget conscientious consumers. Instead, they’re flying over us as they jet to Guam.

The issue, then, is whether we’re capable of climbing up the financial food chain and selling more expensive tourism services when we can’t even manage to sell the cheap ones. The way things stand right now, the Commonwealth simply doesn’t have the know-how to pull this one off. While the foundations of our economy are weak, we are dreaming of ever more esoteric and towering schemes. Why? Because it’s easier to think about fun ideas than it is to tackle the nitty gritty of economic problems.

Yes, the northern islands have all sorts of potential. But if the CNMI wants to develop this potential, it will have to prove it can handle its existing industrial base. Thus far, there’s no such proof.