AFTER last week’s four-day business trip to Japan, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said he believes that the Japanese tourism market can be reinvigorated, but the CNMI, for its part, must improve as a destination.
“We need to clean up Saipan,” he said. “We need to add more activities and amenities.”
At a press conference on Capital Hill Tuesday, Palacios said while he was in Japan, he met with about 30 representatives from departments and agencies such as Rakuten Travel, the Haneda Airport, the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, among others.
Regarding destination enhancement, Christopher Concepcion, the director for the Office of Planning and Development who was with the governor in Japan, said the Garapan Revitalization Project was a “bright spot” of discussion with their Japanese counterparts.
Concepcion said the CNMI delegation led by the governor fielded numerous questions about new developments in the Commonwealth.
“[Garapan] has been lacking attention in the last 20 something years,” he added. The Garapan Revitalization Project “allowed us to see the problem areas and we’re fixing it.”
Marianas Visitors Authority acting Board Chair Gloria Cavanagh, who was also part of the governor’s delegation, said she has had positive meetings with the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Public Lands, but expressed frustration when it comes to bureaucratic red tape that can slow down repair projects.
“How do we fix these sites when there’s no one person that has the authority to do so?” Cavanagh asked. “[Site maintenance] keeps going around in circles.”
Cavanagh also noted the importance of marine sports vendors for Saipan’s visitors. She said three years without business has negatively affected marine sports companies.
“[Supporting marine sports] is something that we need to talk to our private sector partners and with the government about, because something very important in a beach destination is beach water sports,” she said.
The governor said there is a need for a more comprehensive tourism product.
“It’s not just the airline, the travel bureau — across the board we got a lot of work to do. Everybody needs to work for this and put our packages together wholistically so we can reach different types of generations. Younger generations want different things. We’ve got different things to do on Saipan, but we need to reactivate and reset those promotions and activities.”
Optimistic
The governor said the goal is “to try to jumpstart the Japan market. By and large, [we aim] to reset and reinvigorate the Japanese market.”
In Japan, he said they had “very candid” conversations with most of the people they met, some of whom are in executive positions and have worked and lived on Saipan.
Palacios said he was very happy to meet them.
“That felt very good, and I am very optimistic that things are going to start improving for our Commonwealth,” the governor said.
“But it is going to take a little while because Japan is just restarting its outbound travel,” he added.
Still, the Japanese government officials he met said they were willing to help the CNMI and come up with recommendation on how the Commonwealth can improve its tourism industry.
Japan outbound travel
Cavanagh said on May 8, the Japan government will lower its Covid-19 category to No. 5. What that means is that all Covid-19 restrictions such as vaccine requirements, testing and other pandemic-related measures will end.
“We are kind of hoping that…we will be receiving more outbound [travelers from Japan soon],” Cavanagh said.
In Japan, she noted that, as suggested by the governor, they met with Japan government officials first.
“Because we are going through some geo-political issues, we shared this with…Japan, basically…our ally, and they were very helpful in giving us some pointers of where we can go, what we can do, how we can actually work through this, and how we can possibly even get perhaps on a list where the federal and Japan governments can help us as far as opening up outbound travel to the CNMI,” Cavanagh said.
The governor said aside from United Airlines, which launched a three-times-a-week flight service between Narita and Saipan, Skymark Airlines may relaunch its international flight service in the next 18 to 24 months.
He noted that when Skymark, a very successful domestic airline in Japan, launched its international flight about three years ago, its first destination was Saipan.
The governor said they paid Skymark a courtesy visit, and they were told that the airline was able to address the financial issues it encountered before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“And they are very optimistic that maybe in 18 to 24 months they will be able to take a look at international travel. So, of course, they smiled, and I said, ‘Hey, is Saipan on top of the list? ‘And they said, ‘Of course.’ ”
Cavanagh said another potential source of Japanese tourists is the charter flights from Haneda Airport which is just a 20- to 30-minute drive from downtown Tokyo.
Haneda Airport, she said, “will be where you could park your car on Friday and then hop on a plane, and spend three days here, go back and your car is still there. That would be very convenient for the type of market that we are going after.”
Cavanagh said they talked to the airport officials and met with the officials of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation and Tourism who told them that charter flights from Haneda are possible.
“And so, we are hoping that with our private industry partners, it might be a possibility. But those talks are still up in the air, and nothing is really finalized,” she said.
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios speaks during a press conference on Tuesday in the conference room of the administration building on Capital Hill.
