Guam, Saipan, are

Micronesia

Guam, Saipan, are well in front - but watch out for Palau

Micronesia’s tourism outlook can be summarised in one word: Japan. If it was not for the Tokyo honeymooners and others, the visitor industry in the Trust Ter ritory and Guam would still be reliant on a few hardy adventur ers staying in ramshackle gov ernment-run hotels.

Because of the strength of the Japanese market, 1984 is expect ed to be the best year on record for Micronesia’s nascent visitor

industry.

The two strongest visitor desti nations are, of course, Saipan and Guam. Both enjoy a number

of advantages; daily jet service to

Japan (which is scheduled to increase this year); an inventory of modem hotel rooms; good beaches; attractive tropical scen ery; and, perhaps most impor tant, governments that are active

ly encouraging expansion of

tourism.

Guam, for instance, is ex

periencing the healthiest growth

spurt in many years. A new 125room hotel has just opened along Turnon Beach, Guam’s answer to Waikiki. The Guam Plaza hotel, the first hotel built there in many years, is Japanese-owned and caters primarily to that mar ket. Plans for a Naum Hotel are still on hold, but if that ever gets under way, it will be in the middle of the Turnon Bay strip.

The Guam Visitors Bureau re ports that 326,389 tourists visited the island in 1982, and almost all of them were from Japan. By November, 1983, the visitor count was just 5,358 short of the 1982 mark, and the bureau was expecting another 22,000 visitors

in December. All told, the Guam Visitors Bureau predicts that the ’B2-’B3 increase in tourism traff ic will be about five per cent (the November increase from a year before was six per cent.) Saipan, capital of the Northern Marianas commonwealth, is if anything experiencing even bet ter times. From October, 1982, to September, 1983, the number of tourists visiting totalled 124,024. The November, 1983, figure was 9494. that translates into an 18 per cent increase from the previous visitor total.

This year is expected to be even better for those two destina tions because the air connections to Japan will be boosted. Air Micronesia, which flies Boeing 727 aircraft, was scheduled to add a fourth plane to its fleet in February. It will increase flights to Narita, Japan’s main terminal, as well as maintain connections to Osaka. In addition, it will begin serving Taipei, Taiwan. A major effort is being made to entice the Chinese market to visit Guam and Saipan.

South Pacific Island Airways, the international carrier based in Honolulu, is boosting its flights from Hawaii to Guam to six a week. It is expected that they will become daily by June.

SPIA’s dramatic increase is due to Pan American’s decision to abandon its Honolulu-Guam route in April, the first time in nearly 50 years that a Pan Am clipper will not be making that run.

In addition, SPIA was scheduled to begin flying direct from Guam to Port Moresby in February. The airline hopes to pick up more Australian tourists there. A few hardy Aussies make it this far north but only by flying in small aircraft on an island

hopping route through Nauru.

SPIA’s Boeing 707 s could pro

vide an enticing alternative.

Other destinations in Mic ronesia are not doing so well. In

fact, with the exception of Palau, there has not been a major new hotel constructed in the Trust Territory in years. This means that those relatively few tourists

again mostly Japanese who

get beyond Guam and Saipan have to make do with older (in many cases, read run-down) hotels, none of which is up to international standards.

Palau is a different matter.

Two new hotels are under con struction, and one, which is situated on a stunning cove, pro mises to be a much-talked-about location. That, along with com pletion of an airport capable of

handling four-engine jets, means

that Palau at least has the poten

tial for dramatically expanding

its tourism sector. The key will be to have flights to Japan.

SPIA is in a position to do this. It now flies a 707 to Palau from Guam once a week. If it could get rights into Japan no easy task, and one which would

probably require Air Micronesia

to go under Palau’s potential could be realised. Those islands

have the rugged tropical beauty

which would bring hordes of visitors if the airline connections

were right.

So for 1984, the Micronesia tourism picture continues to be dominated by Guam and Saipan.

Indeed, that trend can be expect ed to continue for the remainder of the decade. The islands to watch will be Palau which, with the right marketing and good flight schedules, could become a major Micronesian destination

area.

Floyd K. Takeuchi.