MVA holds 2023 Seoul-Busan Roadshow

More than 100 tourism partners from South Korea and 20 partners from The Marianas participated in The Marianas Seoul-Busan Roadshow held last week. 

Held on Aug. 29, 2023, in Seoul and Aug. 31, 2023, in Busan, the roadshow allowed participants to share information and network about the post-pandemic travel market and receive up-to-date information from hotels and tour operators in The Marianas. The roadshow featured presentations from the Marianas’ partners and the MVA. 

“I want to thank you —our partners in the Korea travel industry —for the strong partnership we forged during the pandemic under the South Korea—CNMI travel bubble—the first travel bubble between South Korea and any United States jurisdiction. Together, we rebooted tourism between our destinations when most international leisure travel was shut down across the world,” said MVA managing director Christopher A. Concepcion in his welcoming remarks at the event. 

“Your partnership is essential, and we look forward to strengthening those partnerships today and building new ones.” 

Eleven major hotels in Saipan and nine other partners including tour operators, car rental brands, and luxury retailers traveled to Korea for the roadshow to provide updated information to key partners in Korea, while several ground handlers in The Marianas also participated in discussions with Korean travel agents and airlines to promote future sales of Marianas travel products. The Commonwealth Office Transit Authority (COTA) was also on hand to announce the resumption of local public bus service on Saipan this October for the first time since the pandemic. 

Since 2017 South Korea has been The Marianas’ top source country, accounting for more than 80% of all international visitors in the last two years. Sharing the upward trend in total air supply between Korea and Saipan, which recovered to 92% in the third quarter of this year compared to 2019, the MVA emphasized that the cooperation of Korean partners is essential to maintain and increase demand and supply on the Incheon-Saipan route, which averaged an 81% seat occupancy rate from August 2022 to July this year. (PR)