According to the Marianas Visitors Authority, arrivals to Saipan, Tinian and Rota registered 38,047 visitors last month compared to 37,702 in August 2009.
The CNMI’s primary market of Japan registered another month of growth in visitor arrivals in August — a 4 percent increase to 20,117 visitors. The increase is largely attributed to charter flights added in August by Asiana Airlines from Narita, by Continental Airlines from Hiroshima, and due to the Kinki Nippon Tourist charter flight services to Rota in August. As Japan was extremely hot this summer, Japanese were also seeking to escape the incredible August summer heat in Japan in favor of a resort holiday in the CNMI.
The Northern Marianas, however, is bracing for the anticipated drop in visitors arrivals from its primary market of Japan from October to mid-December, when airlines have announced the cancellation of flights from Osaka and Nagoya due to low season travel demand.
“We have discussed with the administration and Legislature additional funding for travel agent incentives to help keep the crucial flights from Osaka and Nagoya operating year round,” said MVA Managing Director Perry Tenorio. “We continue to hope that funding can be committed. In the meantime, we must all brace ourselves for the very difficult ‘death valley’ period until the year-end holiday season.”
Japan visitors comprise over half of all visitor arrivals to the Northern Marianas.
Arrivals from the primary market of Korea posted a 2 percent rise in August 2010 over the previous August, registering 10,786 visitors. Korea has posted monthly double digit increases for most of the past year, and three extra flights from Busan early in August brought over 400 additional Korean visitors to the islands. However, in mid-August, daily daytime flights from Seoul reverted to only four times weekly, resulting in a drop of 8 percent in air seats for the month, overall.
The secondary market of China saw 4,343 arrivals in August, a 12 percent increase over the same month last year. Arrivals were augmented by twice a week charter flights from Beijing. and Shanghai. Overall, the China market has demonstrated the strongest growth in terms of arrivals this fiscal year at 54 percent growth, or 13,499 more visitors than the same period the previous fiscal year.
Meanwhile, arrivals from United States increased 35 percent to 837. All other markets were down, including the secondary market of Russia down 33 percent to 383.
