THE Tourism Resumption Investment Plan or TRIP program that then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres created two years ago did not generate the projected number of South Korean arrivals, according to the transition report of the subcommittee assigned to the Marianas Visitors Authority.
Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, the TRIP program was developed by Torres’s Tourism Resumption Task Force and adopted by the MVA board of directors in June 2021. It restarted international flights to the CNMI when global travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic were gradually lifted.
Under the program, incentives were offered to entice tourists to visit the CNMI.
The Torres administration invested a total of $15 million in the TRIP program for South Korea, and $15 million for Japan.
The TRIP program, the transition report said, depended initially on the travel bubble arrangement between the CNMI and South Korea, the islands’ primary tourism market.
The flights from South Korea under the TRIP program began to increase in the fourth quarter of 2021. The incentives were gradually phased out as “organic market demand” began to drive travel activities from South Korea, and two new airlines started flying to the Marianas for the first time.
For the Japan tourism market, United Airlines and MVA announced on June 27, 2022, the launch of direct Narita-Saipan flights under the TRIP program. Beginning Sept. 1, 2022, there were three flights a week between Narita and Saipan. The TRIP program was extended for Japan to allow future bookings because of strong competition for Japanese travelers.
The transition report stated that although the intent was good, the TRIP program incentives for South Korea did not generate the anticipated arrivals even though the CNMI was one of the two destinations in the world that had a travel bubble arrangement with South Korea.
Also, the report said, “the monies went to just a few companies.”
The transition team recommended a review of the TRIP program and strategies to “tie in the return on investment for a more sustainable investment outlook.”
The report also stated that MVA needs an experienced managing director and a permanent home instead of just renting an office space, the cost of which doubled when MVA moved to Gold Beach Hotel in Garapan.
Moreover, MVA needs a dedicated assistant attorney general, and its officials also need to work closely with the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the transition report added.
It stated that the major challenge CNMI tourism faces “is how do we effectively revive the Japanese market” which used to be the islands’ top market.
In an effort to expand the Japanese tourism market, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios went to Japan last week to meet with high-level Japanese government representatives, travel representatives, airline representatives, officials of the Japan Tourist Bureau Corp. and other travel-related organizations.
The transition subcommittee for MVA is comprised of former MVA Chair Marian Aldan Pierce, former MVA Managing Director Christopher Concepcion, Regina T. Jacobs, MVA board member Christopher Nelson, Joseph Rios and George Sablan.
