{"id":317040,"date":"2020-02-06T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T20:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=317040"},"modified":"2020-02-06T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T20:00:43","slug":"mva-japanese-arrival-numbers-remain-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mva-japanese-arrival-numbers-remain-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"MVA: Japanese arrival numbers remain strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marianas Visitor\u2019s Authority marketing manager Thomas Kim talks about the travel history of the CNMI\u2019s source markets at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce general\u00a0membership meeting yesterday at the Kanoa Resort Saipan in Susupe. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>local<\/p>\n

Despite the threat of novel coronavirus to travelers especially in the Asia Pacific region, Japanese arrivals in the Marianas continues at a steady clip, brought from Tokyo to Saipan by Skymark Airlines, which started servicing the route in November last year. <\/p>\n

According to Thomas Kim, marketing manager of the Marianas Visitor\u2019s Authority, who was one of the guest speakers at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce general membership meeting yesterday at the Kanoa Resort in Susupe, the coronavirus scare has had minimal impact so far on the arrival numbers from Japan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been no negative feedback and cancellations reported by our Japanese travel partners. Flights are at a steady 70%…so it is business-as-usual for Japan,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

This echoes Gov. Ralph Torres\u2019 call for the diversification of tourism in the CNMI by building more on the Japanese and Korean markets. It was only recently that three China-based airlines suspended flights to the CNMI, soon after President Trump issued a proclamation that limits the ability of airlines and vessels to enter the United States and its territories.<\/p>\n

Kim credits MVA\u2019s diligence to keep stakeholders and travel partners abreast of the coronavirus situation in the CNMI. \u201cWe have taken immediate action of releasing massive press releases through online media channels, including social media and website,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Kim, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People\u2019s Republic of China issued a document on Jan. 26, 2020, suspending airline ticket sales of flights coming out of China. \u201cAll national travel agencies and companies, business group travel and ticket plus hotel products sales were suspended until further notice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the CNMI projected its visitor arrivals to reach 549,956 in fiscal year 2020. But with the outbreak and suspension of China flights, MVA now expects its visitor arrivals to reach 503,304, if the suspension lasts two months; 456,410 visitor arrivals if the suspension lasts six months; and 433,043 visitor arrivals, if the suspension lasts eight months.<\/p>\n

Some tourism businesses in Garapan have started to note a drastic drop in the number of Chinese tourists since last week. \u201cIt\u2019s been like that for five straight days now.\u201d said a waitstaff at a Garapan restaurant.<\/p>\n

Kim assured that MVA will continue to promote the Marianas as a travel destination in Japan and Korea. \u201cMVA will continue to be in communication with airline partners, travel agencies, and hotel partners about the coronavirus [situation] in the CNMI. We are also in close communication with the Commonwealth Health Care Corp. at the direction of Warren Villagomez, who has been supportive in providing us up-to-date information,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

local Despite the threat of novel coronavirus to travelers especially in the Asia Pacific region,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":309809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317040","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=317040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}