By Zaldy Dandan – Variety Editor
A long overdue reset
2024 was a bad year. Incredibly, 2025 was worse.
Hotel occupancy rates have plunged month after month. In November, HANMI recorded a 17% occupancy rate — the lowest ever, excluding November 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Hotels typically require occupancy rates of around 70-80% to remain in operation.
Visitor arrivals also showed no signs of improvement as of November, when the Marianas Visitors Authority reported a 30% decrease.
Not surprisingly, more businesses — small and large — are either shutting down or downsizing, further shrinking the CNMI government’s revenue base. CNMI leaders have no choice but to reimpose modest austerity measures that should not have been lifted in the first place. And then there is the quite possibly unprecedented four-day school week imposed on the Public School System by CNMI elected officials who call themselves “pro-education.”
The Finance secretary, for her part, publicly admitted that without a new revenue source, the voluntary payment of retirees’ 25% could be on the chopping block.
These are truly trying times.
But several things have also changed for the better. Gone is the often shrill anti-business rhetoric from Capital Hill. Also gone is the frantic pursuit of “geopolitical realities,” for which the CNMI has absolutely nothing to show to make up for its collapsing economy. Clearly, the CNMI could have received the same level of federal assistance it is now getting without jumping on a pro-military bandwagon while all but ignoring the tourism industry.
Happily, instead of telling them how to do their jobs, the administration is now working more closely with the business community and the Marianas Visitors Authority. It is also pushing for business-friendly measures and has opened a long-sought one-stop shop for businesses. Meanwhile, the CNMI continues to engage its federal partners while exploring other ways to revive the local economy.
At long last, CNMI leadership is focused on not making matters worse.
Urgent tasks
RAISING fees and taxes remains out of the question. Amid widespread business closures, downsizing, and rising costs, such measures would be counterproductive — unlikely to generate new revenue and more likely to reduce it.
Among the problems ahead are obligations the government has barely met, which will soon come due again — during a general election year.
Expect the campaign season to repeat itself: promises beyond delivery, pandering rewarded.
However, if the economy — the tourism industry, specifically — continues to falter, a financial reckoning cannot be avoided.
So far, the clearest guidance has come from the Finance secretary: tell the truth. There’s plenty of talk about transparency, but none where it truly matters: the state of the government’s finances and its ability to meet obligations.
Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the NMI Society of Professional Journalists’ Best in Editorial Writing Award and the NMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com/.
