Bruce Bateman, a 30-year veteran of the marketing business, has taken a new job as the Marianas Visitors Authority\u2019s marketing manager at a time when tourism officials are eyeing some new locales to promote the CNMI as a travel destination. One hint: think \u201cdown under.\u201d<\/p>\n
MVA has lacked a marketing manager since the departure of Bateman\u2019s predecessor, Wayne Pangelinan, more than nine months ago, a vacancy that came amid the office\u2019s efforts to revive the CNMI\u2019s tourism industry after a noticeable downturn. Yet with visitor arrivals numbers suggesting tourism here might be the path towards a slow recovery, Bateman says there is reason for optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m bullish about this,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, tourism has been down but only by about 20 percent and we\u2019re looking forward to bringing it back to a level around where it was a few years ago, if not higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arrival of new charter flights to Saipan from Shanghai, a similar deal in the works to draw flights from Russia and the recently unveiled plan to construct a new resort on the north end of the island, he added, are signs this could be possible. <\/p>\n
However, a key obstacle might be the pending federal takeover of local immigration rules and the establishment of a joint Guam-CNMI visa waiver program, which will let foreign visitors from pre-approved nations enter the country without a visa. <\/p>\n
Tourism officials have long said this program could prove problematic if the federal officials crafting it forego the inclusion of Russia and China, two vital markets for the CNMI. Bateman said this prospect puts added urgency on MVA\u2019s efforts in those nations ahead of the program\u2019s start. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to work those markets until we\u2019re told to stop,\u201d he said, adding that MVA has put together \u201cescape plans\u201d to adopt if the program blocks access to major markets. \u201cBut, without question, that is completely out of our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet those escape plans\u2014which he said will go ahead with or without new visa limits on the tourism industry\u2014hold the potential to open a completely new tourism market in the CNMI: Australia and New Zealand, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it has to be in places that are within a reasonable flying distance and have a large enough middle class who can afford to travel here,\u201d he said. \u201cAustralia, New Zealand, they would fit that description\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent political turmoil in places like Bali, Indonesia, a common destination for Australian travelers, could give the CNMI an edge when it comes to competing for tourist dollars, he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bruce Bateman, a 30-year veteran of the marketing business, has taken a new job as the Marianas Visitors Authority\u2019s marketing manager at a time when tourism officials are eyeing some new locales to promote the CNMI as a travel destination. One hint: think \u201cdown under.\u201d<\/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-126811","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\/126811","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=126811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}