Spike seen in tourist traffic

Tourist traffic to the Commonwealth is expected to rebound beginning middle this year as the China market opens up with immediate response from at least three China-based airlines, the Commonwealth Ports Authority disclosed.

CPA executive director Carlos H. Salas said CPA is looking at an additional 2,720 passengers from Shanghai on a monthly basis, courtesy of China Southern Air, which began its twice-a-week air service between Saipan and Shanghai in the latter part of May 2004.

“On a weekly basis, we have 680 passengers from Shanghai through its twice-a-week air service to Saipan,” said Salas.

The Saipan International Airport expects to receive an additional 8,160 passengers via China Southern Airlines’ regular flights up to Sept. 2004.

In addition, CPA said China Eastern Air would also begin its charter service beginning July 2 to Oct. 30, 2004.

Salas said that, from July 2 through Oct. 2004, the CNMI is expected to host 19,200 visitors from Shanghai.

He added that plans are also in the works for additional flights by November 2004 through March 2005. Salas said that, if this pushes through, it would bring in an additional 9,600 passengers, an increase that would reflect positively on the CNMI tourism industry.

“The China market is a growing market and it is contributing a lot to the CNMI tourist industry. There are other discussions going on for more charter flights from other key cities in China and hopefully, this would materialize soon,” said Salas.

Aside from the China market, the executive director said that existing airlines in the CNMI have also beefed up their flight frequencies in response to demands from the Korean and Japan market.

This summer, Asiana Airlines disclosed plans to increase daily flight to Saipan from 11 to 14 flights a week, as demand from the Korean market increase during this period. Salas said this is still being looked into and CPA is optimistic that this would be realized by July and August.

“There are a lot of positive developments in the tourism industry right now and all these would pose positive development in the visitor arrival figure of the Saipan International Airport. Hopefully, all other ongoing discussions would turn out positively so that our tourism industry would fully recover from successive global problems last year and in 2001,” Salas said.