May’s tourist arrivals grow 45 percent

As the CNMI celebrated Tourism Month in May, visitor entry into the islands jumped by 45 percent compared to total visitor arrivals during the same period last year.

The month’s 39,216-visitor tally translated to a 45.01 percent increase from May 2003’s low visitor turnout of 27,043. The number of Japanese tourists who visited the islands last month leaped by 72 percent, while the number of Chinese visitors posted a whopping 5,855-percent increase.

The Marianas Visitors Authority attributed tourism’s strong performance to increased flights from Japan and China. MVA managing director Jonas Ogren said the celebration of Tourism Month also attracted visitors to participate in various activities.

The May total showed consecutive increases in monthly visitor arrivals for the fourth time, when compared to last year’s figures.

The visitor turnout was reflected in the hotel industry, with the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands recently reporting an average hotel occupancy rate of 63.75 percent, which improved compared to May 2003’s 50.40 percent.

“The designation of May as Tourism Month was strategically planned to continue to motivate visitor arrivals, following Golden Week,” Ogren said. “The planned activities had been amplified through our marketing efforts abroad and combined with the 60th Commemorative Celebration of the Battles of Saipan and Tinian, we can expect to receive more visitors throughout June and July.”

MVA statistics showed Japanese arrivals increasing from May 2003’s 16,393 to 28,172 last month. In 2003, the MVA reported on the disastrous effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, which dramatically reduced outbound Japanese travel. Ogren said then that April 2003’s outbound Japanese travelers only numbered approximately 720,000, the first time that the figure dropped to that level in 14 years

The CNMI’s most affected tourist market during the SARS pandemic, China, posted a skyrocketing 5,855 increase last May, with total visitors from China way up to 2,263 from 38 in May 2003. Chinese arrivals in April also posted a remarkable 1,412 percent increase to 1,996 from only in April 2003.

Korean travelers who visited the islands last month, however, slid by a quarter volume from 5,692 tourists in May 2003 to 4,294 last month. The U.S. and Guam tourist markets also declined last month, with 1,621 and 1,717 total visitors, respectively, visiting the Northern Marianas. Visitors from Hong Kong only numbered 132.

Filipino tourists, however, contributed 485 tourists last month, 20-percent higher than May 2003’s 404 visitors.