{"id":407765,"date":"2024-04-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=407765"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Concepcion-A-lot-of-good-things-happening-in-tourism-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Concepcion-A-lot-of-good-things-happening-in-tourism-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Concepcion: A lot of good things happening in tourism industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of good things are happening in the tourism industry as things are slowly picking up in the CNMI, according to Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Christopher A. Concepcion.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press briefing last week, Concepcion said Hong Kong Airlines\u2019 first flight back to Saipan since the COVID-19 pandemic is April 29, 2024 and that they are planning to greet them upon arrival at the Francisco C. Ada\/Saipan International Airport.<\/p>\n

He said a lot of behind-the-scenes talks happened in the tourism industry and one of them was the back-and-forth with United Airlines, pushing them to make the Japan flight a daytime flight.<\/p>\n

The managing director said United Airlines finally agreed to have that depart daytime out of Saipan and out of Narita effective May 7, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe project them to increase arrivals from Japan because it\u2019s just a much more convenient schedule,\u201d Concepcion said.<\/p>\n

With respect to Jeju Air, he said it has twice daily flights and they\u2019ve communicated to MVA that they are looking to operate a third daily flight during high peak summer season.<\/p>\n

Concepcion told Saipan Tribune<\/em> yesterday that this development shows an increase in market demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are waiting on official word from Jeju Air on their plans for now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The managing director also disclosed in last week\u2019s press briefing that they also got an Economic Development Administration grant and that they are working closely with the Office of Planning and Development for the Marpi Tourist Sites improvements Project.<\/p>\n

OPD is a co-grantee for the EDA grant.<\/p>\n

Regarding the Taste of the Marianas next month, Concepcion said it\u2019s going to be a big one\u2014its 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n

He said Taste of the Marianas is a very successful event in partnership with Hotel Association of the NMI and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s event, which will begin May 4, there are 29 booths at the American Memorial Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, a lot of good stuff happening for tourism as well,\u201d said Concepcion, adding that MVA works closely with Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang, and especially with Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita on making sure things are turning and they have enough money to spend to market the islands because it\u2019s highly competitive and it\u2019s very expensive to market the CNMI out there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Christopher A. Concepcion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of good things are happening in the tourism industry as things are slowly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407765","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}