Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Jamika Taijeron attends a meeting with MVA board members and management on Thursday morning.
TO increase tourist arrivals, the Marianas Visitors Authority is developing a “Marianas global branding,” according to MVA Managing Director Jamika Taijeron.
She cautions that things may worsen before they improve.
“Toward the end of this year, we are going to be starting and completing our global branding. Global branding is extremely important because we are going out to the world and showing who we are and what we are and that will drive demand for the product that we have,” she said.
Taijeron said she wants the world to be aware of the CNMI, Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
“Some people might think this is too ambitious, but I want the world to be aware of our destination. I want the demand to be there so that we don’t have to beg airlines to service our location and … incentivize them. I want the demand to be there where people are booking because they want to come here and they’re paying — they’re paying a substantial amount for their tickets and on their activities and their hotels here on the islands, and that would really bring economic recovery. So that’s where I see us heading. It’s having a demand, a strong demand, from not only Japan and China and Korea … but other parts of the world,” said the MVA managing director.
Taijeron said MVA is looking at other markets.
“It will take us a little time to research the markets and to understand whether our destination is appealing to them and how it can be appealing,” she added.
MVA has not yet chosen a company for the global branding project.
“We’re still working through some details, but when that selection happens, the company will send out representatives to come and meet with the community and different stakeholders to really understand what our product is, who are we and what do we want the world to know. And then we’ll collaboratively create that,” Taijeron said.
“Yes, we have beautiful beaches, but guess what other locations also have beautiful beaches, right? Yes, our history, we have a rich history, so we have to identify exactly what our product is and how we go out to the world with that information, and that’s where the global branding will really come into play.
“But we do have a very unique culture,” Taijeron said. “We have beautiful people; we have a great people. We have a product that is untouched, an uncrowded destination and very simple. People can have peace of mind here and truly unwind. And this is not something that every destination can say. So that’s something that makes us unique, and we want to highlight that, but how we highlight that, or what exactly we highlight is going to be determined through all these studies,” she added.
Challenges
“We are hearing of a few challenges that our airline partners are experiencing, and there might be some reduced flights coming up before the summertime. So that’s unfortunate. We don’t want to hear that, but we are working in every way possible to make up for that, and we’re talking with different airlines about charter flights, whatever they can support with,” Taijeron said.
She said among the global issues besetting the airline industry is the shortage of fleets.
“They have not received orders for their aircraft from Boeing or Airbus …. So, some of the airlines we spoke to have ordered … aircraft a couple years ago or it was due a couple years ago, but they have not received that and so that makes it very difficult when airlines are servicing existing routes right now and then we ask them to service our route — they don’t have the aircraft, and that’s where we’re at right now,” Taijeron said.
“All the flights that we get here to Saipan are full, [but] we cannot grow tourism numbers unless we get more flights and when we talk to our existing airline partners, when we talk to new potential airline partners, they’re saying they don’t have the equipment. And it is not an easy conversation to have,” she added.
According to Taijeron, many negotiations need to be conducted with the airlines, and “MVA must also prove that our destination has a demand, and that demand would be larger than any other large city.”
“That is not easy to prove. So, it is difficult. It is challenging. Every day we navigate through different ideas on how to approach and get more airlines and get more visitors, and that’s what we’re working on,” Taijeron said.
She added that although she sees some opportunities, there won’t be any instant improvements. “I would say things actually might get worse,” Taijeron said.
MVA earlier reported that visitor arrivals to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota totaled 15,802 in February 2025, marking a 32% decrease compared to the 23,207 visitors recorded in February 2024.
