{"id":287799,"date":"2018-10-31T06:06:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T20:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=287799"},"modified":"2018-10-31T06:06:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T20:06:43","slug":"zero-business-for-rental-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/zero-business-for-rental-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero business for rental cars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The once robust rental car business in the CNMI is at a complete standstill as the influx of tourists is on a halt as the CNMI continues to recover from the devastation of Super Typhoon Yutu. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Chevrolet Camaros and Mustang convertibles that were so ubiquitous on Saipan highways are now missing in action after Super Typhoon Yutu.<\/p>\n

These convertible cars\u2014with their garishly pink and fluorescent colors\u2014can now only be seen parked and serving as displays after tourist arrivals thinned out in the wake of the Category 5 howler that devastated the island and neighboring Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness is not just slow but zero\u2026I guess the rental car business is going to suffer a big loss until the tourists come back,\u201d said QQ Car Rental president James Han.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at one month or a month and a half before tourists come back in numbers and it really depends how soon the airport will resume regular flight operations. If the restoration takes more time, it\u2019s going to be more trouble for us, and for the tourism industry because, once people start changing their destination, we lose,\u201d Han added.<\/p>\n

Rental of convertible cars is one of the reasons why tourists come to Saipan. It is believed to boost CNMI tourism because these American muscle cars gives tourists a vibe of vacationing in a United States territory.<\/p>\n

The concern about slow tourism was echoed by Eunhee Chung, secretary at Sangjee Rent-A-Car in Garapan. \u201cSince Super Typhoon Yutu had passed, business has not been good and it\u2019s a very serious matter because not a single tourist has come in to our office to rent a car. Saipan is in the news every day in Korea, showing pictures of the damage and devastation, with reports that it is a very serious situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future doesn\u2019t look good as we might suffer losses for one month or more. We know it\u2019s going to be bad because, as of now, early next year\u2019s reservations had already been cancelled. December might pick up because of Christmas time but, with all the cancellations, we are not hopeful,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Aside from a bleak customer base in the next weeks, some cars of both companies also suffered damage from Yutu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have four to five cars with glass damage and 20 to 30 cars with scratches. Insurance does not cover damage caused by natural disasters like earthquake, tsunami, and typhoons. Repair cost might reach close to $50,000,\u201d Han said<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned a lot from Soudelor so we really took time to prepare for Yutu. We stopped releasing cars on the day of the arrival of typhoon Yutu and we parked all the cars at the back of our office. The car damage we incurred during Soudelor went from $300,000 to $500,000,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Soudelor experience also taught Chung to take better care of their cars \u201cWe have two branches: one in Garapan and the other in San Antonio near [Pacific Islands Club Saipan]. Cars parked in the San Antonio branch suffered big damage and cars parked in Garapan had zero damage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have over 60 cars and five cars were damaged with broken glass, scratches, and broken side mirrors. Repair cost might reach $10,000,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Han remains positive despite projected losses in his car rental business. \u201cWe are staying positive by trying to figure out how to help the community to hasten Saipan\u2019s recovery. We are renting cars out to locals for $20 to $30 a day and we help people from the Federal Emergency Management Assistance and American Red Cross as they order some trucks for recovery operations and we give them 50-percent discount,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce everything returns back to normal operations, I project the influx of customers is going to be less than usual because it is not automatic\u2026We are doing what we can to help the community. In fact, we plan to go to Marpi to assess the safety signs that we put up there months ago so that it is less dangerous, both for locals and tourists,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Chung said there is nothing they can do now but be patient. \u201cWe are looking at full recovery after three months, but even with that, the big season from December to February in Korea is already finished. That is also China\u2019s peak season, the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur five cars that were damaged is very small, but business is suffering the biggest damage. But we are going to fight this through and help spread good publicity for Saipan to the tourists,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chevrolet Camaros and Mustang convertibles that were so ubiquitous on Saipan highways are now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":287800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[56,162,26,67],"class_list":["post-287799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-business-3","tag-car","tag-cnmi","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287799","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}