This sharp decline pulled down the overall arrivals rate from 29,611 in Oct. 2008 to 20,267.
Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Perry Tenorio said this month through December will be more challenging
“The decline is due to the 56 percent decrease in air seats, and to a lesser extent, the H1N1 virus once again rearing its head as a deterrent to outbound travel by Japanese. In Oct. 2009, there were four flights per day from Japan. However, in Oct. 2009, air seats were reduced from Narita, Nagoya and Osaka,” said Tenorio in MVA’s monthly tourist arrivals trend statement.
The arrival rate from Osaka dropped by 73 percent to 711 from a high of 2,616 in Oct. 2008.
The number of tourists from Tokyo also fell by 34 percent to 5,957 from 7,592 during the same period.
Arrivals from another primary tourism market, South Korea, also sharply declined in October —down by 45 percent to 4,808 from 8,713.
“Like Japan, air seats from Korea have dropped, registering a 20 percent loss in Oct. 2009.
After 13 months of a ‘struggling’ outbound market in Korea due primarily to the economic downturn and weak currency, the industry thought it was finally seeing some light as the market has begun to rebound recently,” said Tenorio.
“However, the H1N1 crisis is yet again making headline news, putting the industry in fear again and hitting all outbound travel from Korea to all destinations,” he added.
China, however, posted a 103 percent increase in arrival rate last month after months of negative growth.
A total of 3,846 Chinese tourists visited the islands in October compared to just 1,891 in the same month a year ago.
According to MVA, Russian arrivals held firm in October, registering 377 arrivals compared to 380 in October 2008.
MVA said arrivals from the U.S. rose 74 percent (909) bolstered by 420 visitors arriving aboard two military ships.
Also posting gains were Guam (up 2 percent to 1,520), the Philippines (up 18 percent to 132) and Taiwan (up 12 percent), MVA said.
