Visitor arrivals up nearly 21 percent in April

The local tourism industry greeted Northwest Airlines’ announcement that it will be adding daily nighttime flights from Narita this June with more positive news as visitor arrivals to CNMI posted double-digit growth last month.

According to the latest report from the Marianas Visitors Authority, April arrivals soared 20.98 percent to 31,800 tourists, compared to the 26,286 that came and visited the Commonwealth in April 2007.

The nearly 21-percent rise in visitor arrivals is the first time in months the islands experienced double-digit growth and the spike is the highest in recent years.

Arrival numbers from Japan were also a pleasant surprise in April as the CNMI’s No. 1 source market recorded an increase, for a change.

For the first time this fiscal year, arrivals from Japan were higher than the previous period, growing by 9 percent to 15,743 from 14,445 in April 2007.

A contributing factor in the growth, according to MVA, is the resumption of the direct flights from Osaka. In April 2007, there were 16,578 seats out of Japan but with the resumption of the Northwest Airlines daytime flights, the CNMI enjoyed 19,860 seats this year.

“We are very encouraged by the strong growth out of Japan this month,” said MVA managing director Perry Tenorio. “With the recent announcement of the additional nighttime flights coming out of Narita on Northwest Airlines, we look forward to continued growth from Japan.”

Visitor arrivals from South Korea continued to be robust in April 2008 with yet another double-digit increase at 41 percent. A total of 8,743 Korean visitors entered the Commonwealth last month compared to 6,196 in April 2007.

The sustained strength of the CNMI’s fastest-growing market can be attributed to ongoing promotions in South Korea as well as more frequent flights serviced by Asiana Airlines.

The Russian market also continued to show monthly growth for all of fiscal year 2008 as April numbers recorded 403 Russian guests visiting the CNMI, compared to 283 in April 2007. This is an increase of 42 percent.

“Other countries” and the U.S., meanwhile, were the top market performers based on percentage increase. MVA said both markets registered astounding triple-digit growths of 624 percent and 127 percent respectively (1,572 for “Other countries” and 1,969 for Russia).

MVA said ship arrivals are a strong factor in this growth. For the month of April 2008, the CNMI welcomed five military ships that brought in a total of 921 crew and one cruise ship that brought in 1,708 passengers.

“If these ship arrivals were factored out of the monthly count, visitor arrivals would have posted an overall 11 percent growth compared to April 2007,” the MVA said.

Source markets that didn’t perform that well last month include China (down 20 percent), the Philippines (69 percent), Taiwan (95 percent), and Guam (1 percent).