Todd Montgomery, board member of Island Renew Project Inc. that is behind the www.saipanfun.com, a website designed to be a business incubator for small businesses yesterday said that it’s still early but the response that they got has been more than anticipated.
“We’ve seen a spike in web traffic to our websites. We are also getting a lot of email inquiries. We are just beginning our awareness campaign so this is great,” Montgomery said.
He said that since they launched the website last week, they have had a number of entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs contact them.
“These folks are at varying stages of starting their businesses. One of the most encouraging signs is that as we exchange information the entrepreneurs seem very excited about available tools,” Montgomery said.
To enlist your business related with the tourism industry at Saipanfun.com is very simple.
“Businesses just need to contact us. We’ve designed Saipanfun.com to empower the entrepreneurs. The users have a lot of flexibility and tools to control their content and web presence,” he said.
Montgomery said that they are constantly adding new content provided/recommended by visitors to the site.
Montgomery said that currently, they have several speaking engagements planned throughout Saipan to get in touch with the businesses.
He said that they are also having a lot of one-on-one sessions and sessions that are open to the public. The most up-to-date events can be viewed at the saipanfun.com website.
Montgomery said that the new site provides entrepreneurs not only with tools to promote and manage their business but to give aspiring entrepreneurs access to the latest technology to start a new business.
“Tourism is the lifeblood of Saipan and the key to economic growth. To ensure that Saipan can compete with other tourist destinations, Saipan must offer unique attractions that will attract new visitors and encourage repeat visitors to come back again and again,” Montgomery said.
He added that Saipanfun.com is designed to support these new attractions by bringing together tourists seeking a unique travel experience with entrepreneurs offering great local products and services.
“Saipanfun.com significantly lowers the cost of starting a new business. The website offers user-friendly solutions to the essential technologies needed to run a business. This flexible platform provides online reservation handling, user-friendly Web presence, search engine optimization, inventory management, and payment processing,” he said.
He said Saipanfun.com is a nonprofit and is designed to only cover costs. The company listing is free but if entrepreneurs decide to sell their products and services through the website, they are charged an at-cost fee for processed bookings.
He said that this fee includes a bank charge to process the credit card transaction and website support.
Montgomery said that what makes Saipanfun.com different from the other existing travel websites is that the information you can get from there is “objective and insightful and based on years of living and working here on Saipan.” This means that the website is not trying to fleece money from the vacationers but it is a site that will work with small local businesses so that vacationers will know what makes Saipan great — where they can get the best bargains to shop for souvenirs, where to eat the best foods, spend the best times and make the best of their vacation without creating a huge slice off their budgets.
“This innovative approach insures visitors are receiving the very best,” Montgomery said.
Saipanfun.com contains a growing list of directory where to go shopping, golfing, a directory of local favorites like beaches, restaurants, activities, travel tips, island jobs, and more. If your business deals with the travel and tourism industry, feel free to visit the website and call them to have your business included in their directory.
For more information, visit www.saipanfun.com, www. islandrenewproject.org,, email info@islandrenewproject.org or call 322-3050 for the latest updates.{jcomments off}
