“WE’RE the only destination they can go to,” said Ivan Quichocho, Marianas Visitors Authority board member and Tourism Resumption Investment Plan–South Korea committee chair, during a board meeting last week.
As a result of the NMI-South Korea travel bubble, Quichocho said that the CNMI is the only marketable South Korean government-endorsed destination for South Korean citizens.
He said the CNMI is on every landing page of major travel wholesale, tour agencies, channels for outbound vacations, and various media outlets.
“The program created this buzz that we can’t even put a dollar figure on…. That’s invaluable. You can’t buy advertisement or market influence like that,” he said.
As a result, there has been a recent spike in bookings to the CNMI, with over 600 bookings in just the first week of this month, exceeding projected numbers and going at a consistent pace of at least 100 bookings a day.
This influx of bookings is not only seen in the month of September but also in the month of October, Quichocho added, noting that there have already been over 480 bookings confirmed for October alone.
“Just to give you an idea on the pace of bookings, starting Aug. 31 for September through the end of November, which is the period we’re selling, we picked up 113 bookings on the first day alone. On Sept. 1, we picked up 48 bookings; the second, 75 bookings; the third, 109 bookings; the sixth, 119; and Sept. 7, we issued 325 bookings in one day. For Sept. 8, there [were] 107 bookings. So, the pace seems to be pretty consistent,” he said.
He added, “Currently, as of Sept. 8, October is sitting at 483 bookings. The projection is 853 or 850, so given that we’re only at Sept. 8, and the daily bookings are at a pace of a minimum of 100 bookings per day, I anticipate that that October number that we projected will be achieved, if not exceeded.”
Quichocho attributed this feat to the CNMI being marketed currently as one of the safest places in the world to travel to amid the still raging global Covid-19 pandemic.
“It started with the foundation of being safe…We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for that hard work,” he said, giving credit to the CNMI Covid-19 task force, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, and all front liners,” he said.
MVA anticipates that nearly 400 tourism industry employees will return to work before the end of the year.
The CNMI is presently the only destination with a travel bubble agreement with South Korea.
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, in previous interviews, said the Commonwealth is open to other tourism markets, depending on each jurisdiction’s Covid-19 response.
Ivan Quichocho
