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Japan Arrivals Up In Northern Marianas

Saturday: August 09, 2008

(Marianas Visitors Authority)

The Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) is reporting a sharp increase in Japanese arrivals during the month of July according to statistics released today.

There were 19,012 Japanese visitors to the CNMI in July compared to 15,529 during the same period last year.  This represents a 22 percent increase in arrivals.  This is the second highest number of Japanese arrivals during fiscal year 2008.  January led the way with 20,078 arrivals in a single month.

The launch of the daily Narita nighttime flight in July by Northwest Airlines brought an additional 298 daily seats from the Japan market.  The flight is obviously making a positive impact and allowing Japanese arrival numbers to grow.

For the first time this year South Korean arrivals into the CNMI declined by 6 percent from 10,901 visitors in July 2007 to 10,208 this past month.  According to reports from our South Korea office, South Korea’s economy has been unstable, showing signs of stagnation, and recording the lowest consumer spending for consecutive months.

As the consumer sentiment on household spending has been restricted, Koreans are not actively planning for overseas trips.  However, the main reason for decline in outbound travel is the increase in the fuel surcharge.  For example, a family of four members now has to pay about $1,000 for the fuel surcharge and tax.

Overall arrivals for the month of July posted a 4.3 percent increase.  There were 35,529 visitors on our islands last month compared to 33,804 during July 2007.

The strong growth from Japan was a major factor in the increase.  Russia also helped boost arrival numbers as this market showed an increase of 168 percent or from 294 visitors in 2007 to 787 last month.

While the overall arrivals are encouraging, the Philippines showed a sharp decline in arrivals.  There were only 171 visitors last month compared to 516 during July of 2007. 

This market has been declining due to the opening of the NCLEX testing center in the Philippines, which does not require nurses to take the examination overseas.  Further, Continental Airlines canceled the direct flights from Manila in July.

China also showed a decrease of 57 percent or from 4,107 visitors in 2007 down to 1,749 this year.  In July 2007, there were charter flights from Shanghai and Guangzhou.  For this year, we only had charter flights from Guangzhou. 

“The increase in total visitor arrivals is very encouraging for the CNMI tourism industry,” says MVA Managing Director Perry Tenorio.  “We are working closely with our travel partners to assure that we can continue to grow visitor arrivals to the CNMI,” adds Tenorio.