{"id":220097,"date":"2016-02-04T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T20:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=220097"},"modified":"2016-02-04T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T20:00:42","slug":"korea-marianas-tourism-council-formed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/korea-marianas-tourism-council-formed\/","title":{"rendered":"Korea Marianas Tourism Council formed"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_220127\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220127\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Korean-pix.jpg-300x210.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220127\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deputy managing director Judy Torres of the Mariana Visitors Authority, sixth from right, appointed members of the Korea Marianas Tourism Council on Jan. 15, 2016, on Saipan.  The council is comprised of presidents and CEOs of top travel agencies to the CNMI and Asiana Airlines. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To strengthen its valuable partnership with Korea travel partners, the Marianas Visitors Authority has appointed a Korea Marianas Tourism Council comprised of CEOs and presidents of top Korean travel agencies and Asiana Airlines.<\/p>\n<p>The representatives of the industry advisory group conducted a FAM tour of the Northern Marianas from Jan. 14 to 17, 2016.  The appointments were made at an official ceremony at Hyatt Regency Saipan on Jan. 15, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Korea Marianas Tourism Council meetings will be a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and provide suggestions to develop the Korean travel market for the NMI,\u201d said MVA managing director Perry Tenorio.  \u201cWe\u2019re pleased to have the partnership of each of the new appointees, and thank them for accepting this appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>KMTC members are:<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Moo-Seung Yang, CEO of Tour 2000 (Chairman of KATA, Korea Association of Travel Agents)<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Ok-min Han, CEO of Mode Tour<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Jae-Chan Leigh, Vice Chairman of Sejoong Travel<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Sangho Lee, CEO of Very Good Tour<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Jin Seok Lee, President of Naeil Tour<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Min-Soo Kwak, Executive Managing Director of Hana Tour<br \/>\n\u2022 Mr. Myeong-young Moon, Executive Vice President, Asiana Airlines<\/p>\n<p>Following the ceremony, the MVA and the committee discussed ideas for further development of NMI tourism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the biggest concerns raised is the long lines at immigration at the Saipan International Airport,\u201d said Tenorio. \u201cKMTC members expressed that this initial negative experience upon arrival leaves a bad first impression and may also affect the number of repeat visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The long lines may also serve as a disincentive for airlines to increase the size of the planes flying to Saipan, the group said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a positive note, the members did express interest in sending more visitors to Tinian and Rota,\u201d said Tenorio. \u201cTo do so, the improvement of inter-island transportation to or between islands is a must. That would include regular and reliable air service between islands, and perhaps also ferry service between Saipan and Tinian, a size upgrade of current planes, and the upgrade of airports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>KMTC members also suggested new hotel development on Rota so more visitors can enjoy the island\u2019s pristine natural environment and local festivals. <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To strengthen its valuable partnership with Korea travel partners, the Marianas Visitors Authority has appointed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":220127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1682,402,26,9506],"class_list":["post-220097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-asiana-airlines","tag-ceo","tag-cnmi","tag-kmtc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220097","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}