After enjoying five days of high occupancy during Japan’s Golden Week, hotels in the CNMI are now facing the same old problem –a huge number of empty rooms.<\/p>\n
“It’s a big headache. But we’re expecting the occupancy really to go down after the Golden Week,” said Ryuji Chiku, front office manager, Aqua Resort Club. The resort enjoyed a 100 percent occupancy rate from May 1-5.<\/p>\n
The brief high occupancy rate enjoyed by many hotels due to the influx of Japanese tourists during this period only shows that the island’s tourism economy has not recovered since the decline of the Asian economies in July 1997.<\/p>\n
Back to its usual 60 percent occupancy rate, Hidetoshi Nojima, rooms division director of Hotel Nikko Saipan, said hotels will only again enjoy 100 occupancy if the airlines will add more flights.<\/p>\n
Even if the current airlines will have a 100 percent load factor, the Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands maintain that the number of passengers will not be able to fill up all the hotel rooms on the island.<\/p>\n
Although the Marianas Visitors Authority has already carried out is own campaign in Japan using the Saipanda mascot, Nojima believes that the promotion has not reached a wider audience.<\/p>\n
He said Saipan should be marketed more as a relaxing place for Japanese families. Saipanda, the mascot representing the Japanese male who frequently visits Saipan, must be shown actively playing golf or enjoying the island with a family in various posters distributed in Japan since the CNMI cannot afford a television advertisement.<\/p>\n
Hotels and resorts were busy during the Golden Week due to the seven charter flights made by Japan Airlines — one from Osaka, three each from Fukuoka and Nagoya which brought approximately 1,855 visitors. This is on top of the regular JAL flights to Saipan which were also fully booked during the Japanese holiday season.<\/p>\n
Japanese tour operators estimated a 20 percent increase during the recent Golden Week, compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Iwao Sakai, general manager of R&C Tours, said young Japanese had more money to spend during the Golden Week and there were more cheap package tours to Saipan which helped entice Japanese travelers to come here. Aside from Saipan and Guam, the most popular destinations for Japanese are United States and Hawaii.<\/p>\n
The Northern Marianas would have become a more favorable destination for Japanese had Continental Micronesia did not drop its direct service from key cities in Japan to Saipan, said Sakai. “They don’t like to wait for a long time in Guam so they do not come here anymore. Maybe if there’s a change in schedule there would be more visitors coming here,” he added.<\/p>\n
Based on the arrivals record of the Marianas Visitors Authority, visitors coming from Japan have shown a steady increase after suffering a double-digit decline for a long time.<\/p>\n
Japan, the island’s main source of tourists, has been battling its worst recession since World War II. Tour operators are hoping that economic reforms being undertaken by the Japanese government would stimulate international travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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