Lynn Knight of Management Analysis Inc., an international consulting team working on the CNMI Tourism Master Plan for 2012-2016 with the Marianas Visitors Authority, yesterday told the MVA general meeting at the Fiesta Resort & Spa that surveys were conducted by a local team at the Saipan international airport.
MVA last surveyed Japanese tourists in 2005 and Korean tourists in 2003. A new survey of the key markets was conducted and the results are being tallied online. Knight said over 2,000 surveys were done.
“We are near our target of conducting 2,300 surveys,” she said.
Knight said from the hundreds of replies and feedback they collected through exit surveys, tourists mentioned several ideas that are crucial to tourism industry. These include safety, cleanliness, good value, convenient travel, opportunity to learn something, cultural experience, good memories, beautiful environment, shopping, dining, taste of culture, variety of activities, and new activities for repeat visitors.
Knight said CNMI needs to address these issues to continue to lure tourists to come back.
“We get a fair share of repeat visitors from Japan and other countries, and we need to introduce something so that they won’t have to do things over and over again,” Knight said.
The tourism master plan includes an overview of key market trends, most promising niche markets, strategies for funding of marketing, branding and new media strategy, recommendations to improve the business climate for tourism based on international standards, targets for visitor arrivals, benchmarking “best practices” from international destinations, and 20 key initiatives and new product developments.
Knight said a branding team has been working to identify recommendations to re-brand the destination.
The team has also developed numerous sets of logo designs which have been reviewed by MVA, and came up with a list of potential taglines.
To date, Knight said the team has conducted 130 one-hour interviews on Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Japan and Korea, and looked into statistics from 2006 to 2010.
The team also reviewed the current conditions of tourism facilities and products, conducted a study of transportation challenges and reviewed key issues with the governor, MVA, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Department of Public Lands, the Zoning Office, the Workforce Investment Agency and the Department of Commerce.
Government is key
The government is the key in boosting local tourism, but getting the participation and involvement of the community is also important, according to former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
He was one of the guest speakers at the MVA general membership meeting yesterday,
He said the government needs to look into the infrastructure and transportation issues to market an area as a tourism destination.
“Unless you do something about infrastructure, it won’t do any good for your tourism industry. The longer you delay, the more you are going to pay,” Hannemann said.
He said the government must continue to provide funding for promotion and marketing
“If you want to diversify, it should not be away from tourism but diversify within tourism,” he added.
“Like Hawaii, tourism is what the CNMI does best. It is where many of the people are employed and it is the economic engine and we need this to survive,” Hannemann said.
Allowing the community to be involved in tourism is very important, he added.
“The community has to embrace tourism. It is everybody’s business, a 24/7 industry which is here now and will be here in the future.”
