IT may take time, but the CNMI could be “the next hot destination” after Thailand and Bali, according to Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Jonas Ogren.
Travelers, he said, including European tourists, have frequented Thailand and Bali, and may be looking for a new exciting place.
“Markets are always looking for a new hot thing, the cool place to travel to. It used to be Thailand and Bali. Now those places are flooded with Europeans. It’s not exciting to go there anymore because they have been there. So the people are looking for the next thing. Maybe the CNMI will be it,” Ogren said in an interview with Variety.
“Maybe it’s not today, not tomorrow, not even next year. Probably five years from now. But in order to be the next best thing five years from now, we need to start today,” he added.
He said the fact that people travel from far away places to get to areas like Bali shows that they might also visit the CNMI.
The CNMI, however, is not known to many people, he said.
“The distance between, let’s say, Germany or England to Bali is pretty much the same distance as it is from England or Germany to the CNMI. So there’s no reason why people would not travel to this part of the world except for the fact that right now they don’t know we exist,” he said.
Ogren recalled that while he was in Europe a few weeks ago, he inquired from travel agents about possible packages for Micronesia, and found nothing.
“People asked me ‘Where? Micro where?’ So I proceeded to tell them about this place and many people are interested,” he said.
Ogren, who is from Sweden, said MVA needs to start diversifying its strategies and reach out to more markets.
“The benefit of doing that is we’re not vulnerable to downturns or trends within a specific market. If you diversify, you are safer in that regard,” Ogren said.
He said MVA will continue to focus on existing markets such as Japan and South Korea, but it also needs to penetrate other markets, including the European countries, the rest of mainland U.S., Asia and other places.
“We need to reach out to other markets beyond the existing ones and plant seeds. In some places, those seeds will grow, in other places, they will not. So we need to monitor where there’s interest, move little by little. And when the time comes where we can effectively make expenditures in those markets, my plan and my hope is we’ll do so,” he said.
Ogren said he will meet with key people from the private sector and the government to consult and get feedback on tourism development in the CNMI.
He said he is scheduled to meet with the mayors of Saipan, Rota and Tinian, tourism organizations like the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands and similar groups “to strengthen working relationships.”
“Tourism is really an issue, a concern of everyone. It’s my belief that we all need to work together as a team,” he said.
A marketing and tourism graduate of Cornell University, Ogren, 31, had worked as MVA committee member during the last three years in his capacity as sales and marketing director of Rota Resort & Country Club.
He arrived on Rota six years ago after his employment with Radisson SAS Hotel in Beijing as human resource training manager.
“I really enjoyed working on Rota and traveling within the CNMI especially in the last three years when I was in sales and marketing,” he said.
