Marianas Visitors Authority Japan office representative Takashi Ichikura gestures during his presentation at MVA’s general membership meeting at Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan on Thursday.
INCREASED travel costs due to a “strong” U.S. dollar are among the reasons for the slow Japan outbound travel recovery cited by Takashi Ichikura, Marianas Visitors Authority Japan office representative, in his presentation to the local tourism stakeholders.
He was one of the guest speakers at the MVA general membership meeting held at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan on Thursday.
“Fuel surcharge and the price hike in destinations reported through Japanese media and social networking service — accordingly, U.S. beach destinations are considered expensive,” Ichikura said.
U.S. $1 is currently worth about Japanese ¥146.
“Majority of Japanese feel why they have to travel to expensive overseas beach destinations now when they have alternatives including reasonable domestic and Southeast Asia destinations,” Ichikura said.
He added that the current United Airlines flight schedule is another challenge.
“Customers must pay for three nights for a two-day stay in the Marianas,” Ichikura said.
He added that Saipan and Guam have similar package prices, “but Guam has more package listings…and different package durations.”
Guam’s four-day packages guarantee a morning departure from Japan and a late afternoon departure from Guam, “which means an almost three-day free time,” Ichikura said.
“Saipan’s four-day packages with [United Airlines] is midnight arrival and early morning departure from Saipan, which means only two days of free time, and is extremely tiring because of the flight schedule,” he said.
Moreover, “Saipan at this moment doesn’t have an iconic thing, which makes customers feel they have to visit Saipan now, and [there’s] also [a] need to improve its infrastructure,” Ichikura said.
In his presentation, he noted that Japanese overall travel in October 2023 was 43.6% lower than in October 2019.
Japan arrivals in Hawaii and Guam “were seriously below average at minus 64.3% and minus 78.1% respectively,” he added.
He said in September 2023, Japan’s total outbound travel to Guam was 13,079 compared to 59,758 in September 2019.
Japan total outbound travel for Hawaii was 51,350 in September 2023 compared to 143,928 in September 2019, he added.
Ichikura said CNMI policymakers should consider building a clear destination image, offer more travel packages, and improve flight service so that the Japan market can recover in 2024.
He also recommended providing “incentives for customers who book via travel agencies (who are mainly first timers and families); understand…what the Japanese are looking for; and [implement] infrastructure development for better visitor experience (including airport, hotel, road, among others).”
Japan used to be the CNMI’s primary tourism market until 2014 when arrivals from South Korea and China became the islands’ top two markets.
From a peak of 141,747 arrivals in 2013, the number of Japanese tourists visiting the CNMI has since declined, plunging to 17,121 in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
In 2022, there were only 2,130 Japanese who visited the CNMI.
At the Marianas Visitors Authority’s general membership meeting at Crowne Plaza Resort on Thursday, MVA Japan office representative Takashi Ichikura discusses the challenges facing the Japan tourism market.
