THE Marianas Visitors Authority will only get half of its $16.1 million budget request for fiscal year 2003, but the administration says it has identified $10 million in new funding for “tourism enhancement.”
This funding would be sourced from the proposed beautification tax collection estimated to reach $3 million, as well as from the $4 million projected revenue from the reappropriation of improvement funds and development grants.
The administration’s FY 2003 budget proposal also showed that some $1.7 million was added to MVA’s current budget of $5.5 million. The additional funds will be used “exclusively for efforts to inform potential visitors and to remind those who have visited before of the attractions CNMI offers.”
The administration increased MVA’s budget for next year from $5.5 million budget to $7.3 million. This, however, is still far less than MVA’s $16.1 million original funding proposal.
“The natural economy of Northern Marianas is the visitors industry. We have the necessary resources of sun, sand and sea, and we have markets in the many large population centers nearby,” said Lt. Gov. Diego Benavente, who, in behalf of Gov. Juan N. Babauta, signed the $217.9 million proposed budget.
“Nevertheless, tourism is a highly competitive industry, and tourist demand is quickly affected by changes in fashion, destination image and pricing,” he added.
Benavente said local tourism industry figures have been declining since the 1997 Asian currency crisis. The recent terrorist attacks in the U.S. also adversely affected the industry, he said.
“Clearly, there are forces at work outside of our control. But there’s much we can do to take control and to restore the tourism economy we once had,” he said.
The administration will focus on two main efforts to restore the tourism economy: promotion and destination enhancement as well as protection and further improvements.
To achieve the goal, the executive branch allotted $2.7 million operational fund for the closure of the Puerto Rico dump site and the operation of the new sanitary landfill.
“No funds have ever been budgeted for this purpose,” Benavente said.
Puerto Rico is considered as “the single greatest detraction from the beauty of Saipan.”
According to the administration, it will source the money for MVA and waste management from the projected $3 million beautification tax.
To realize this, a law would be passed requiring a 0.34 percent tax on all goods entering the CNMI.
“The rationale for taxing incoming goods is that eventually, in some form, these goods become waste products and must be disposed of appropriately,” Benavente said.
