{"id":288322,"date":"2018-11-09T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=288322"},"modified":"2018-11-09T06:00:58","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:00:58","slug":"even-in-disaster-there-is-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/even-in-disaster-there-is-business\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Even in disaster, there is business\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite the zero arrival of tourists, two popular souvenir shops are not throwing in the towel. In fact, Alex Youn, president of I Love Saipan, believes that there is business even in a time of disaster.<\/p>\n

From catering mostly to tourists, I Love Saipan is shifting its focus temporarily to providing for the needs of residents and relief workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are bringing in several generators\u2026We have 200 generators coming on [Nov.] 15 and another batch on [Nov.] 25 and these were all ordered by local [residents]. We are [now] taking orders for the Dec. 1 shipment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I Love Saipan also has relief containers coming from South Korea and the U.S. mainland, with items that target recovery from the typhoon such as mosquito coils, mosquito screen tents, water bottles, thermostats, and power banks.<\/p>\n

As for clothing, people after a typhoon don\u2019t need luxury clothing \u201cso we are trying to buy clothes that we can sell from a $1.99 to $3.99,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

ABC Store manager Joyce McCarthy said their business is doing alright despite the decline in the number of tourists. \u201cSome of our associates were affected by the typhoon but, even with that, our store is up and running as we service our local residents and those relief workers from the U.S. mainland and Guam like the military,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McCarthy said that relief workers and local residents bring in business \u201cbecause we have drinks, sandwiches, and clothing. Some people think it\u2019s just a tourist souvenir store but it\u2019s actually for everybody,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if they were not affected by the typhoon. Youn said that I Love Saipan closed a few stores Managaha Island and Paseo de Marianas \u201cbecause we don\u2019t have customers at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that the damage that Super Typhoon Yutu caused was too big for everybody. \u201cRight after the airport closed down, tourist arrival went zero. I don\u2019t know how many are coming thru Guam but at our stores, we don\u2019t see any tourist at all and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The company still has hotel stores open at the Hyatt Regency Saipan and Kensington Hotel. \u201cEven though we are not getting customer traffic, we are still open for our employees to have work and continue earning and we try to do business that is related to typhoon recovery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Marianas Visitors Authority executive director Chris Concepcion said a marketing campaign is now being formulated that focuses on CNMI\u2019s recovery, called \u201cCNMI is Safe\u201d\u2014a campaign to lure tourists back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis intends to inform the market that as soon as the [Francisco C. Ada\/]Saipan International Airport resumes full operations, the tourism industry is ready to welcome back visitors from around the world.\u00a0 We are trying to minimize negative coverage of the islands so that we don\u2019t become a taboo destination,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe may be in a state of disaster but the rest of the world is not,\u00a0so we cannot afford to be passed over for the next best thing.\u00a0 That\u2019s how this industry works, because if we\u2019re closed and people need to travel, they\u2019ll instantly bypass us and choose a competitor destination to visit. We must avoid that at all costs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

To expedite rebuilding the CNMI and reclaim its status as a preferred destination in the Pacific, Concepcion said the MVA has been cleaning up some of the tourist sites to get them ready.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Marpi site is one of the most visited in the CNMI so it\u2019s important that we get it back to normal quickly.\u00a0 While the airport is operating with severe limitations, we want the community to focus on recovery, regain a sense of normalcy, rebuild their homes and businesses, and get our islands back to the paradise it always has been,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Overall we want to send a positive message out that the CNMI is down but not out. In fact we are recovering faster than anyone expected and should be back to normal in no time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the zero arrival of tourists, two popular souvenir shops are not throwing in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[56,26,51,67],"class_list":["post-288322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-business-3","tag-cnmi","tag-guam","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288322","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=288322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}