The Marianas Visitors Authority is developing a seven-day itinerary for visitors, in response to calls by Gov. Juan N. Babauta and an international travel group for the agency to focus more on quality of tourists it lures to the destination.<\/p>\n
MVA managing director Vicky Benavente said Ruder Finn Asia, which represents MVA in China, has prepared an itinerary for Chinese tourists coming to the CNMI. But this includes only activities for an average four-day stay.<\/p>\n
According to MVA director JM Guerrero, MVA should encourage tourists to stay longer and visit each island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to show what we have. Let\u2019s give the tourists ideas on the many things they can do when they come to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Otherwise, we won\u2019t get them to extend their stay,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
Babauta in a letter to MVA chairman David Sablan credited the tourism board for the Northern Marianas\u2019 increased visitor arrivals last year. He noted that while the CNMI is behind Palau and Guam in percentage increase, the Commonwealth was considerably ahead of Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and other destinations.<\/p>\n
But Babauta also urged MVA to place less emphasis on the numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, visitor arrival statistics don\u2019t tell the whole story. Ultimately, at the Northern Marianas wants is a tourism economy that is less based on quantity and more based on quality. I know MVA is doing its best to attract the kind of visitors who spend more and stay longer. I encourage that approach,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n
Peter Semone, vice president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, made a similar recommendation to MVA when he visited in December 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t care too much about the numbers. Focus on how long your visitors stay in your destination and how much they are spending while they\u2019re here,\u201d Semone said.<\/p>\n
An MVA report indicated that among the CNMI\u2019s top three tourism markets, Korean visitors stay on island the longest. The average length of stay of Korean visitors is 3.66 nights, followed by Chinese tourists with 3.37 nights and Japanese tourists with 3.32 nights.<\/p>\n
Results of a survey done for MVA by Market Research & Development, Inc. in 2003 showed that Japanese tourists spend a total average of $513 during their stay in the CNMI. The study also revealed that Japanese tourists spend the most for optional tours ($116) and souvenirs for self or companion ($115).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Marianas Visitors Authority is developing a seven-day itinerary for visitors, in response to calls by Gov. Juan N. Babauta and an international travel group for the agency to focus more on quality of tourists it lures to the destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87176","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\/87176","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=87176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}