As of last Thursday, a total of 9,268 tourists have so far cancelled their trips to the CNMI, translating to $24 million in lost revenue for the islands, according to the Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Perry Tenorio.<\/p>\n
Tenorio said the estimate is based on January of this year\u2019s average room and occupancy rates, which is very similar to this month.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Tenorio disclosed that 7,000 tourists have so far cancelled their trips due to Typhoon Soudelor.<\/p>\n
Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands president Gloria Cavanagh the cancellations from the prior 7,000 tourists were from charter flights from Asia. With Tropical Storm Goni that passed the CNMI over the weekend, cancellations continued yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because it is a holiday for Asia such as Japan, China, and Korea. However, tomorrow we\u2019re expecting the flights from Guangzhou and Shanghai, because when I spoke with Tom Liu at Saipan Travel Inc., that will be the charter flights coming in. They normally run six flights a week and will resume tomorrow [Aug. 17],\u201d Cavanagh said.<\/p>\n
However, the incoming flights is also causing problems for hotels due to the influx of local and off-island emergency responders including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross. This is causing overlaps in booking rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was affected, so now starting tomorrow, Aug. 17, everyone is pretty hard pressed to continue to hold rooms for FEMA and locals. We had cancellations [but] we were able to fill those rooms with local and emergency crews and we were affected in the decrease of the hotel occupancy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Cavanagh said that hotels would have made about $3 million a day, and that is probably from Japanese guests, which make up the majority of the 7,000 flight cancellations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rates given to locals and FEMA are lower than the actual rates for this peak season,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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