AMERICAN Rescue Plan Act funds amounting to $15 million were spent on the Tourism Resumption Investment Plan, or TRIP, that helped restore the direct flight service between Tokyo/Narita and Saipan, Marianas Visitors Authority Executive Director Priscilla M. Iakopo said in an interview early Friday morning.
“It is ARPA funding. The reason why we received our funding is to help us jump-start tourism…. The $15 million is [an] investment to restart…tourism, our…primary economic driver in the CNMI. [We’re] incentivizing [airlines, travel agencies and] our local businesses, helping them get back up and running to what they were before the pandemic,” Iakopo added.
“Our goal at MVA is to make sure that we have a lot of people on the plane. So, the more people we have on the plane, the less money we invest, the less money we spend. [As] for the airlines and…our local businesses, we’re helping them by providing them some funding, so that way they can restore their equipment, whatever materials and supplies that they’re not able to [obtain], because they have not had any customers in two and a half years,” she said.
The inaugural flight from Narita early Friday morning brought in 80 passengers in a United Airlines 737 aircraft that can seat over 160 passengers.
Iakopo said any vacant seats on the flights will be paid for by the funds allocated for TRIP.
“The goal is to make sure that we have them full. That’s the goal,” she said. “We knew it was risky, but like we said, there’s a reason why we call this TRIP. It’s tourism resumption investment.”
The endeavor is supported by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to help MVA restart tourism for the Japan market.
“It’s not for just the airlines,” Iakopo said. “It’s [also for] travel agencies [and online travel agencies] — the whole nine yards.”
For his part, the governor said MVA is also spending funds on other tourism markets.
He noted that the Japan market briefly made a comeback with Skymark Airlines, which was very successful before the Covid-19 pandemic virtually shut down global travel.
But Skymark will not be able to participate in TRIP-Japan as it is currently focused on domestic flight routes, he said.
“This is what we do. We try everything that we can to [revive] the economy. I’m confident that that first step is bringing them back,” he added, referring to tourists.
The Marianas Tourism Resumption Task Force announced the launching of TRIP to stakeholders and the community on June 1, 2021, detailing a strategy that would maintain the destination’s high Covid-19 safety standards while meeting key expectations of travelers.
The initial two-month pilot period, which focused on the South Korea market, saw the CNMI government providing subsidies to airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and related businesses to help stimulate the local tourism industry.
