Talk of what sets the Northern Marianas apart from other destinations like Guam: To make it more attractive to tourists, why not offer Saipan as a destination alongside Tinian and Rota?<\/p>\n
\u201cOffer tourists a multi-island package. Include Tinian and Rota in the Saipan travel package. This is something unique. Guam doesn\u2019t have it,\u201d said Kanae Quin, chair of the Japan market ad-hoc committee during Thursday\u2019s Marianas Visitors Authority general membership meeting at Hyatt Regency Saipan. <\/p>\n
She said the CNMI continues to suffer from a lack of destination recognition. She noted that most Japanese tourists know of Saipan but not much of Tinian and Rota, and have difficulty differentiating these islands from Guam.<\/p>\n
Besides, Guam and CNMI travel packages are usually sold by the same travel agents.<\/p>\n
[B]Branding [\/B]<\/p>\n
In his presentation, Andy Tidwell, chair of the destination branding ad-hoc committee, said it is challenging to come up with a brand since it has to capture three distinct islands: Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. \u201cHow do we brand three distinctively different islands under one brand identity?\u201d asked Tidwell.<\/p>\n
Another factor would be the changes that would take place on the islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have to offer today will be different than what we have to offer in five years,\u201d said Tidwell. \u201cHow do we build a brand that is reflective of where we are today but allows us to enhance the brand as the destination is enhanced?\u201d <\/p>\n
He said that in the past, the Marianas Visitors Authority tried to come up with brands but these did not prove too successful.<\/p>\n
These include \u201cSaipan\u2019s Got Me,\u201d \u201cTinian\u2019s Lure,\u201d \u201cRota Wants You,\u201d and \u201cAmerica\u2019s New Frontier\u201d\u2014\u201cnone of which were very, very successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
[B]\u2018Play, enjoy, relax\u2019[\/B]<\/p>\n
Based on some research and brainstorming among committee members, the ad-hoc committee recommends the use of the words \u201cPLAY\u201d, \u201cENJOY\u201d and \u201cRELAX\u201d when promoting the Northern Marianas overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith each of these words, we will showcase images to include Saipan, Tinian and Rota,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The goal he said is \u201cto show off what we have now on Saipan, Tinian and Rota\u201d and \u201cto make the brand simple and allow it to grow as the islands tourist economy grows.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee said this has to be advertised on proper media channels to allow for brand recognition and name recognition. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes repetition to effectively market a brand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He cited the following samples:<\/p>\n
– Hawaii, The islands of Aloha<\/p>\n
– Malaysia, Truly Asia<\/p>\n
– Las Vegas, What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas<\/p>\n
– San Francisco, ONLY in San Francisco<\/p>\n
-Singapore, Uniquely Singapore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talk of what sets the Northern Marianas apart from other destinations like Guam: To make it more attractive to tourists, why not offer Saipan as a destination alongside Tinian and Rota?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}