The Philippines and its strategic location is set to become a key component in the development of tourism in the Mariana Islands, according to an international organization of airline and travel industry stakeholders.
Aviareps—which works closely with the Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA)—is positioning the Philippines to become a key partner of Saipan, Tinian and Rota in their push to become an emerging tourism destination among Asean-member countries.
Aviareps Philippine office director Jean Lugan said they would capitalize on the country’s proximity and direct flights to the Mariana Islands in the region to boost tourism on both sides.
“There is a lot of potential in the fact that the Philippines is only four hours away from Saipan and that it is only Philippine Airlines that has direct flights to the Mariana Islands in the region,” she said.
Philippine Airlines flies Wednesdays and Sundays to Saipan from Manila and Mondays and Thursdays from Saipan. This makes the country an ideal hub for the flow of tourists to and from the Marianas and other Asean countries.
“The Philippines is looking at 6.5-million tourist arrivals this year,” Lugan said. “We can easily surpass that by having neighboring countries go through the Philippines first and spend a few days here before going to the Mariana Islands.”
The Department of Tourism said that last year, 115 million individuals from the Asean region traveled abroad, with Singapore and Malaysia being the top markets for the country with close to 300,000 combined visitors.
To capitalize on this, the MVA brought travel agencies and tour operators from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to Saipan with a stopover in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, MVA has built a consortium of 16 travel agencies promoting two-way tourism between the Philippines and Mariana Islands.
“If everything works out, we will see a big increase this year in tourist arrivals both in the Philippines and in the Mariana Islands,” Lugan said. “MVA will be building the same type of consortium in other Asean countries.”
She added another built-in advantage is that the Philippines and the Mariana Islands share the same top markets, namely Korea, China and Japan.
Aviareps, which started its Philippine operations last year, is the world’s leading airline and tourism management company. It handles over 90 airlines and more than 90 tourism clients.