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MVA: Visitor arrivals up 5 percent in Sept.
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Posted on Oct 09 2008
The CNMI’s tourism industry saw slight gains in September with a 5-percent jump in visitor arrivals and a major influx in Japanese travelers linked to the expansion of airline service from Tokyo to Saipan, the Marianas Visitors Authority said Thursday in a newly released report.
MVA’s September tourism statistics reveal that 27,650 travelers arrived in the CNMI last month, a 5-percent rise over the 26,252 that entered in September 2007. The Japanese tourism boost, MVA said, was tied to the beginning of added airline flights to the CNMI from Tokyo’s Narita Airport.
However, this increase comes in spite of a severe drop in the number of Korean visitors coming to Saipan connected to recent declines in the value of the Korean won when compared to the U.S. dollar—part of the toll America’s financial crisis has taken internationally—and increased airline ticket prices.
Korean visitor arrivals fell 22 percent in September, MVA says, down from 8,605 in the same month last year to 6,697 now. MVA managing director Perry Tenorio in a statement said turmoil in the global economy could have a serious impact on tourism
“We are encouraged by the increase in our September arrivals from various source markets,” Tenorio said, adding that the “threat of a global recession, coupled with higher air fares and the increase in fuel surcharges is of great concern to the MVA. Although it is still too early to predict the impact of these factors on the travel industry, these forces are beyond our control and could severely impact outbound travel demand from our primary and emerging source markets to the CNMI.”
Meanwhile, September marks the close of MVA’s 2008 fiscal year. Over the year, tourist arrivals increased by 1,398 visitors to 396,487. Japanese tourism fell during the year by 6 percent while Korean tourism saw a 19-percent increase. Russian tourism, a small but profitable demographic for the local travel market, climbed by 103 percent.
