Cost of visiting these isles
The Issue: It’s basically the same destination, yet CNMI costs a lot more than neighboring Guam.
Our View: If CNMI doesn’t resolve this issue, more visitors will descend on Guam than these isles.
The CNMI has lost a substantial portion of its share in tourism from Japan while Guam seems unfazed by it all. Reason? It’s cheaper visiting our southern neighbor than the CNMI.
Has the CNMI taken proactive steps to probe where it trim cost so it offers the same price tag, if not, better than neighboring Guam? Is the problem really bogged to too many middle-men in the delivery of services to visitors who come to these isles? If so, what are these tiny costs that eventually balloon to the level of pricing ourselves out of the market?
Given the sagging Japanese economy and the lost of the yen’s strength to the dollar, it’s most appropriate that the CNMI walks the extra mile to take advantage of travelers seeking closer destinations than such places as Hawaii and Australia. This trend has emerged and the demand for nearby destinations has increased significantly.
The high cost of visiting these isles over our neighbor to the south has definitely taken its toll by way of more tourists bypassing these isles to bask in the triad of the sea, sun and surf right next door. It should have been addressed and resolved since four years ago. But we’ve graced it with a fitting old adage: “After all is said and done, a lot more is said than done”.
The CNMI becomes highly vulnerable given the fact that it never had a set of plans in place. Dealing with difficult issues–usually found in well-thought out plans–so we could pave the way for lasting results seem to fit our penchance for instant gratification. For as long as this is the case, perhaps we’ve played into the hands of complacency or mañana as to watch the parade move elsewhere.
There’s no more room to blame external influences. The buck stops right here and either we do something about it or face total kaput in tourism development. Hello, anybody home?
