THERE has been “meaningful communication” with Skymark Airlines and United Airlines regarding the resumption of a direct Japan-Saipan flight service, Marianas Visitors Authority Board Member Ivan Quichocho said.
“We are aiming to resume Japan-Saipan flights by June or July,” he told his fellow MVA board members in a recent meeting.
“Skymark said they are committed to resuming direct international flights; however…because of the current situation that they are going through, they are primarily focused on domestic flight routes,” he said, adding that Skymark would not be able to participate in MVA’s Tourism Resumption Investment Plan or TRIP for Japan.
As for United Airlines, Quichocho said they received “positive feedback.”
“It’s very encouraging,” he added. “We will finalize [a Request for Proposals and have it] reviewed by the Attorney General’s Office, so that we don’t have any delays in executing Japan-TRIP.”
According to Quichocho, “Once we have established that pipeline then we can carry out our discussions for the wholesale market, and what exactly it’s going to take to get this started. What we initially wanted are daily flights or three times a week frequency, but knowing that the market is just reopening we will likely start with two flights a week.”
Quichocho said, “Right now Japan citizens can travel outside of Japan and come back quarantine-free, provided they are vaccinated.”
He also noted that the CNMI is now in “Covid-19 Community Level Low” — health declaration forms are no longer required for incoming domestic travelers from the states and other territories.
“This is good news,” Quichocho said.
“The Guam Visitors Bureau is already planning the reopening of their markets in May,” he added. “We’ll push forward.”
For his part, MVA Board Member Chris Nelson noted that the CNMI is “a very different destination than [it was] two years ago. Most things are closed, and a lot of the services that were here before are not here — the type of tourist experience we are going to have will be very different. We should market and focus on what we have.”
Nelson added, “We can’t have visitors expect to go souvenir shopping in Garapan or things like that. But there are some things we still can do really well. We know that we’re doing good at golfing, scuba diving…. Right now, we can attract those types of people, but we just don’t want to attract people [who may] have a bad experience,” Nelson said.
MVA needs an updated list of hotel and vacation rooms, ground transportation and optional tour vendors, he added. “We need to keep it updated as we gear up for what we can provide to the visitors.”
