SAIPAN Chamber of Commerce President Joe Guerrero said when it comes to the local tourism industry, in the long run, “the more is not the merrier.”
Guerrero, who also serves on the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers, said there has been a lot of discussion at the council level about the quality of tourists over the quantity of tourists.
“I think that this is important to note. It’s not necessarily about ‘the more tourists, the better,’ because we realized that there’s impact on the environment, impact on our society. We only have so much land, we only have so [many] natural resources, and if we open up the floodgates to two million tourists, or even a million and a half tourists, there will be [an] unexpected impact on our people and our land,” he said.
Guerrero added that local businesses will also have to rethink their business models.
“The more is not the merrier. [When] you have better rooms…you [can] charge higher rates rather than having more rooms with lower rates. You still, at the end of the day, actually might make more money with higher rates. Even restaurants charge more and provide better food rather than, again, charging less and making less money,” he said.
Guerrero said this is a key concept that he would like the members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce members to really think about as they plan their businesses three to 10 years down the road: providing better services.
“Luxury services are going to be needed for the type of world-class tourists that we’re trying to attract. So, keep that in mind and you’ll be hearing more from the chamber,” he said.
Japan market
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, for his part, reiterated the administration’s vision of transforming the CNMI into a world-class destination.
He also noted the loss of the Japan tourism market amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We want to continue to focus on bringing back our Japanese market, and we are communicating with our [Marianas Visitors Authority office in] Japan about the opportunity to start that dialogue again,” he said.
Arrivals to the CNMI peaked in 1997 with over 726,000 tourists visiting the islands. The number steadily declined over the following years until 2012. However, after Super Typhoon Yutu hit Saipan and Tinian in October 2018, arrivals dropped significantly. With the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the local tourism industry all but shut down.
According to the Marianas Visitors Authority, arrivals to Saipan, Tinian and Rota grew 2,104% percent to 4,188 visitors in February 2022, compared to 190 visitors received in February 2021.
While the figure is the highest monthly arrival since the Covid pandemic, it is still a significant decrease of 89% from 38,049 received in February 2019, “indicating a continued challenging road ahead for the recovery of the Marianas tourism economy,” MVA stated.
Joe Guerrero
