THE Marianas Visitors Authority will work with Expedia and Reina Travel in promoting the CNMI beginning on Sept. 1, MVA board members and Tourism Resumption Investment Plan or TRIP Chair Ivan Quichocho said.
According to Expedia, this will “create a lot of chatter for tourists,” Quichocho added.
He said Expedia has conducted a study of its users and learned that many tourists are interested in pristine nature destinations.
Expedia is an American online travel shopping company,
“They also shared some results from their online platform for the Micronesia region. Expedia will share their stats with MVA so we can use them for planning purposes,” Quichocho added.
“MVA and Expedia agree to collaborate and work together to ensure we succeed in promoting the CNMI not just for the recent promotional push, but for the long haul,” he said.
As for Reina Travel, which is an online tourism promotional platform company, Quichocho said it has signed up for the incentive program to help sell the CNMI as a destination.
“They are currently promoting and selling Guam as a destination but have only sold 50 packages in the last six months. They believe the reason for the sluggish Guam booking is due to Covid-19 restrictions,” Quichocho said.
Nonetheless, Reina Travel’s online app will feature, promote, and market the CNMI as a destination, he added.
“The company’s local operator is TASI tours which has real-time access to booking hotels and optional tours,” he said.
Quichocho noted that Saipan’s golf courses are far superior to Guam’s or even Australia’s.
“So, the current Marianas vacation promotion for air, sea and land will provide for free scuba diving (sea), golfing (land) or sky diving (air) for anyone booking a flight to the CNMI. In addition, travel agents will get a 10,000 yen [about $72] incentive for each travel booked to Saipan.”
He said MVA has also invited Reina Travel officials to join the next familiarization tour “so they can be exposed to all that the CNMI has to offer.”
