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JAL arrivals climb 5 percent
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Posted on Jan 26 2001
Japanese visitors ferried by Japan Airlines to the island climbed five percent in December 2000, representing more than 900 tourists, compared with figures recorded during the same month in 1999.
JAL-Saipan Sales Manager Yasuyoshi Kinoshita attributed the five percent increase in visitor arrivals to calmed fears over what has been overly-publicized “millennuum bug” during the 1999-2000 transition.
“Japanese tourists in December 2000 had already overcome their fears of the Y2K bug,” Mr. Kinoshita said in an interview yesterday.
During the period under review, Japan’s flag carrier transported a total of 16,476 tourists to the CNMI through its two daily flights from Osaka and Tokyo. Extra chartered flights brought another 932 visitors.
According to JAL’s statistical report, the airline ferried 18,066 passengers from four cities in Japan in November 2000 , up from 17,538 passengers during the same period in 1999.
This year, JAL disclosed plans to introduce six extra Tokyo-Saipan and Osaka-Saipan flights aside from its two daily regular air transportation trips.
Mr. Kinoshita said the additional flights are significantly less than what the carrier offered last year, citing lack of market demand for more airline seats.
The JAL official added that since Japan’s economy is beginning to show slow signs of improvement, Japanese tourists are more interested to go on longer and farther trips like the mainland US and Europe.
“I think Japan’s economy is getting better and maybe they want to spend more on traveling to foreign places,” said Mr. Kinoshita.
In February, JAL will be offering two extra flights with four more to follow in March.
November 2000 visitor arrival statistics reveal that educational trips have been a major factor in the increase in the tourist haul for that month.
JAL and local agencies have long encouraged Japanese institutions to conduct more educational trips to the Northern Marianas.
Mr. Kinoshita, in earlier reports, revealed that Japanese high school students who came to the islands in Nov. had fun learning the English language and the local people’s way of life.
He added that the tours yielded positive results that may spur more school trips here.
