{"id":227235,"date":"2016-05-09T06:06:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T20:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=227235"},"modified":"2016-05-09T06:06:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T20:06:26","slug":"mva-next-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mva-next-40-years\/","title":{"rendered":"MVA in the next 40 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chris<\/a>
Chris Concepcion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Marianas Visitors Authority has gone through ups and downs over the last four decades in what its current board chair Marian Aldan Pierce once described as a \u201croller coaster ride\u201d for them who have been part of the tourism industry since the beginning.<\/p>\n

From its creation on Feb. 11, 1976, MVA saw the rise and fall of different tourism markets\u2014beginning in 1977 when 57,000 arrivals were recorded, and reaching a million cumulative visitors in 1988, and now to more than 700,000 in a recent year\u2014as well as the incoming and outgoing of investors in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

And as MVA celebrates its 40 years this year, it also welcomes a new and young chief to take the lead in this new era of tourism who envisions a balanced and sustainable growth for all in the next 40 years to come. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good team in place here at the MVA, we have predecessors that are knowledgeable on industry matters, we have a great board of directors who are longtime industry titans in the tourism industry, and we have great staff that are the real heroes in all of this,\u201d MVA managing director Chris Concepcion said, \u201cWe will definitely work together to steer the industry in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

First on Concepcion\u2019s list is the intense effort to revive and stabilize the Japanese tourism market, which has seen a decline since the 2000s.<\/p>\n

Japanese tourism revival, destination enhancement<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the immediate short term, Concepcion said there is a need to revitalize Japan arrivals and then bring them to profitable and stable levels for airlines that fly the route.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re reaching out. We\u2019re in active discussions with different airlines to offer new routes and new service from different points in Japan to CNMI. Nothing confirmed yet but we\u2019re confident that we can move forward on some aspects,\u201d Concepcion said.<\/p>\n

In order to entice this market, Concepcion acknowledges the need for further destination enhancement as well, which is another big focus for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Japan market, because it is an advanced market, they have been travelling for a long time and they\u2019re very sophisticated travelers, they will spend good money where they see value. With that, another big part of my focus is destination enhancement and we have a good committee right now, volunteers from the community led by MVA board director Chris Nelson and destination enhancement manager Tatiana Babauta who has taken the lead on the side of the MVA,\u201d Concepcion said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think when we start with destination enhancement, if you build things, clean up the islands, make it attractive, and make it worth spending money to see, that builds excitement overseas, and you end up attracting high-yield premium tourists to come and visit us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Aside from the ongoing projects such as the relighting of the Beach Road pathway, redesigning of Paseo de Marianas, and the Flower Island Project, Concepcion said he wants to showcase the uniqueness of the CNMI and the islands to have a more defined identity. <\/p>\n

Concepcion said his team is working on coming up with \u201cphoto op worthy stuff\u201d to become possible landmarks comparable to statues and symbols in other destinations in the world.<\/p>\n

One idea is to have exact huge replica of the House of Taga and latte stones in strategic locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe House of Taga\u2026I\u2019m always awed and inspired by it because the latte stone is the symbol of the Chamorro culture and Tinian has the world\u2019s largest standing latte stones,\u201d Concepcion said, \u201cI was thinking of having an actual replica of those latte stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you imagine that in the middle of Garapan, tourists would love to stand there and take a photo,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He added that they are also conceptualizing using island- and nature-themed symbols to become giant statues such as giant coconut crabs and fruit bats where people can take pictures as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media, it\u2019s really hot today so if tourists take pictures of that and they blast it out into cyberspace then it becomes free marketing for the CNMI,\u201d Concepcion said. <\/p>\n

Concepcion took note of the advantages of having other islands for tourists to visit as well, which would greatly improve if their respective airports begin to have direct international flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be the catalyst for boom,\u201d Concepcion said, \u201cI think Tinian and Rota are jewels. They are underrated. They have huge potential. The only problem is airlift. It\u2019s hard to ask tourists to get here and then ask them to jump on a small plane and go to Tinian and Rota.\u201d <\/p>\n

Balanced growth, environmental protection, cultural preservation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite being in charge of the tourism industry, Concepcion said they are not only looking at growing the industry but balancing and managing it. <\/p>\n

\u201cGrowth is good but managed growth is key. It\u2019s a huge responsibility for the MVA,\u201d Concepcion said.<\/p>\n

While he believes the CNMI can sustain over a million arrivals in a year, a direction that he wants to go in is to have \u201cquality tourists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA very important part of our mission here is to balance out any growth in the tourism industry and tourist arrivals. We do need more tourists of course but with that, we want more quality tourists, high-spending, high-yield tourists who will have great impact on the economy but minimal impact on the environment,\u201d Concepcion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would rather have one tourist spending $1 million here than one million tourists spending a dollar each because it\u2019s easier on the environment. I am for the protection of the environment and promoting eco-friendly initiatives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Concepcion said the fragile state of the environment, particularly the ocean and jungles, is something that must be protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody comes here to see the nature, and the beaches, and enjoy the nice weather and those are the things that we need to protect and promote going forward,\u201d Concepcion said. <\/p>\n

He also believes that preserving the islands\u2019 culture is essential, so groups who are promoting cultural performances must be encouraged. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that the culture defines the destination, that\u2019s very important for me. That\u2019s the only way to distinguish us from other places,\u201d Concepcion said. \u201cThe Chamorros and the Carolinians are here in the CNMI and this is their home and so it should stand out differently from other cultures and islands in the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all the developments that will be coming on line in the CNMI in the next years, Concepcion said there is a need to define sustainable and longterm beneficial growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all need to come to consensus on what type of development we want for the CNMI because with all the plans that we have coming along here in the next few years, if all these hotel developments really come to fruition, it\u2019s huge. There are going to be thousands of rooms that we need to fill,\u201d Concepcion said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOverdevelopment is not good for anybody,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Leadership, community support<\/strong><\/p>\n

While MVA takes the lead in the CNMI\u2019s only industry, the authority continues to stress that \u201cTourism is everybody\u2019s business\u201d and that they need the help of everyone to be able to continue promoting the islands as a tropical paradise destination.<\/p>\n

MVA said it needs the support of the Commonwealth\u2019s leaders, particularly of the Legislature and the Executive Branch, to make sure that they have the funds to be able to compete with the promotion capabilities of other destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you fund MVA, you fund the tourism industry,\u201d Concepcion said, \u201cAlong the lines of supporting MVA is we need the support of the leaders on Capital Hill to be able to protect MVA\u2019s primary funding source which is the hotel occupancy tax which we only get 80 percent of.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope this year there is full support with our budgetary requirements because we need the money. It\u2019s very expensive to market the CNMI overseas,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Aside from government leaders, MVA also needs the participation of stakeholders and the community as a whole to ensure the continued growth of the islands\u2019 tourism for decades to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new day; it\u2019s a new era in CNMI tourism. We have a great team, a great board in place. I\u2019d like to ask for the support of the entire community as we move things forward with all this development coming on line here in the CNMI the next few years, we really need everybody on the same page here so that we control and temper any development so that it benefits us and it\u2019s not too much of a burden on our islands, our infrastructure, our environment, our way of life,\u201d Concepcion said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marianas Visitors Authority has gone through ups and downs over the last four decades…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":227279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,170,11406,212],"class_list":["post-227235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-japan","tag-marian-aldan-pierce","tag-mva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227235","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}