Tourism figures show the dismal reality of visitor arrivals in the Mariana Islands.
While both Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have made significant marketing efforts, the results have not born fruit.
Other tourism and travel news in this update shares Japan Airlines efforts to reduce crowding on the metro, and how data can be used to reduce aircraft turbulence.
The Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands reported a 31.6% average occupancy rate among 11 member hotels for October, a 37% decrease compared to a year ago.
A total of 20,557 of 65,020 available room nights sold during October, compared to 31,603 of 63,248 available rooms sold in October 2023. The average room rate was $119.87 compared to $135.13 last October.
HANMI Chairman Dennis Seo, who is general manager of Pacific Islands Club Saipan, said in a Dec. 10 release, “Visitor arrivals are still as low as they were in October 2023; every two out of three hotel rooms in HANMI [hotels] are empty, and our average room rate also took a huge hit in October, dropping 13%. The U.S. dollar has shown extraordinary strength, intensifying competition with the premier beach resorts in Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, as well as among hotels in Saipan, resulting in a continuous decrease in hotel sales prices. This indicates that the profitability of hotels is declining or that they are operating at a loss. The tourism economy has not bounced back for us.”
Total visitor arrivals for Guam for October were 53,077, with a weighted hotel rate of $202.61, according to the Guam Visitors Bureau. Both figures are down compared to 2019, a drop of 60.6% for visitor arrival and a drop of 6.3% for the room rate.
The Guam Hotel & Restaurant Association has not published statistics since 2020.
In related news, Japan Airlines is asking visitor arrivals to get their luggage delivered to their hotels, rather than take suitcases with them on the crowded metro system.
JAL’s "Same-day Delivery Service" provides customers arriving at Haneda Airport’s Terminal 3 with same-day delivery of checked baggage, through a counter in the arrival hall.
Japan saw an all-time high of more than 3.3 million visitors in October, according to Japan National Tourism Organization estimates. The country saw 2.87 million arrivals in September.
And also, the International Air Transport Association announced that interest in its Turbulence Aware Platform continues to expand, with six airlines having joined the program in 2024. Most recently, this includes Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Scoot and Singapore Airlines.
“Managing turbulence will remain at the forefront of aviation safety and efficiency, given the expected rise in demand for air travel, coupled with shifting weather patterns. Turbulence Aware pools anonymized turbulence data from flights operated by participating airlines. This real-time, accurate turbulence reporting enables pilots and dispatchers to choose optimal flight paths, avoiding turbulence and flying at optimum levels to maximize fuel efficiency and thereby reduce CO2 carbon emissions,” IATA said.
Along with growing airline participation, the data transmission scope of Turbulence Aware is expanding through agreements concluded with The Weather Company, Lufthansa Systems, PACE TXT, APiJET, BCI and Storkjet over the past 12 months.
IATA launched Turbulence Aware in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence, which remains a leading cause of passenger and crew injuries.
At present, the IATA Turbulence Aware Platform has more than 25 airlines contributing and consuming data through more than 2,600 aircraft. In 2023, a total of 38 million reports were generated. Data from IATA Turbulence Aware is also made available to meteorological offices for turbulence modeling validation and development as well as academic institutes for research purposes. mbj
Tourism and travel news update
Tourism and travel news update
- Date Posted: Dec 11, 2024
- News: Guam, Northern Mariana Islands
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Tourism and travel news update