According to the Marianas Visitors Authority, arrivals to the Saipan, Tinian and Rota registered 35,164 visitors last month compared to 30,301 in July 2009.
The CNMI’s primary market of Japan registered another month of double digit growth in July — a 16 percent increase to 16,596 visitors.
The increase is largely contributed to a 6 percent increase in available air seats from Japan during the month, due in part to an additional daily flight from Narita commencing in Dec. 2009 which was not available in the year prior.
Also, flights from Osaka are operating daily during the summer months, as opposed to three times per week in July 2009.
“Increased arrivals from Japan in June and July clearly indicate the importance of the Nagoya and Osaka markets for the Northern Marianas tourism industry,” said MVA Managing Director Perry Tenorio.
“For instance, in May of this year, we had no flights from Osaka and Nagoya, and Japan arrivals dropped 11 percent compared to May 2009 when those flights were on-line.”
“Our priority remains to stabilize air service from these source cities and to keep those flights in the air year-round,” Tenorio added.
“We continue to dialogue with the administration and the Legislature on offering incentives that will drive our Japan tourism partners to keep those flights full and flying during the ‘death valley’ low season from October to mid-December.”
Building on seven consecutive months of double-digit increases, arrivals from Korea posted a further 8 percent rise in July 2010 over the previous July, registering 10,782 visitors.
As with Japan, the number of available air seats from Korea also increased in July — by 9 percent.
This was partly attributed to daytime flights from Seoul flying daily during the second half of the month, an increase from the previous schedule of only four times a week.
However, this daily schedule ended on Sunday, Aug. 15.
The secondary market of China saw 4,615 arrivals in July, an 87 percent increase over the same month last year.
Arrivals were augmented by twice a week charter flights from Beijing that began on July 16.
Also, charter flights from Guangzhou operated briefly from early in the month until July 20.
This is compared to July 2009, when charter flights from both Guangzhou and Shanghai were flying.
Meanwhile, arrivals from the secondary market of Russia were down 25 percent to 375. Arrivals from the United States were up 5 percent to 951, while visitors from “Other Areas” increased 18 percent to 271.
