Decline of Marine Sports in the Cnmi

Decline in Marine Sports in the CNMI

Prior to 1979, marine sports were almost non-existent in the CNMI. Aside from swimming and snorkeling, recreational diving was practically the only marine sports activity that visitors and locals could experience. By the mid-80's marine sports swiftly emerged as another motivational factor in attracting visitors. This dramatic change is evident in the increased number of marine sport shops operating on major hotel beachfront properties and the local marina offering water sports activities such as jet skiing, banana boat rides, parasailing, and other related marine activities. All of this soon enhanced the CNMI's image as an ideal travel destination for recreational and adventure seekers. Despite its popularity, the industry continues to experience a sharp decline caused by adverse circumstances such as the reduction in visitor arrivals, the need for price control and limited variety in water sport activities.

One major reason for the downward trend in marine sports activities is the reduced number of visitor arrivals in the CNMI. Because of its close proximity to Asia, countries such as Japan, Korea and China have been the primary markets for the CNMI. Yoichi Matsumura General Manager of Pacific Development Inc. and who also serves on the MVA Board of Directors said, "More than 50% of Japan's visitors used to take flights on Japan Airlines" (Eugenio). In June of 1998 Japan's economic recession attributed to the low demand in outbound travel. ("JAL Bids Adios"). Over the next decade, continued low demand in air travel, operational and overhead costs, and the rising fuel prices starting in 2003 and eventually peaking in 2007, left Japan Airlines with no optimal alternative but to cut its losses and terminate its services to the CNMI by October of 2005 mostly due to the lack of properly forecasted fuel hedging. This was the start of the crippling of the CNMI's economy. HANMI president Lynn Knight describes this as "the end of an era in our tourism industry, in spite of the history of the partnership between JAL and the CNMI" ("JAL Bid Adios to NMI").

The Federalization of the CNMI's local immigration and implementation of a new visa waiver program also contributed to the drop in visitor arrivals. The new Guam-CNMI visa waiver program that was implemented by Department of Homeland Security did not include the Republic of China and Russia which are the emerging markets the CNMI has been targeting over the past decade. For this reason, the CNMI has been aggressively lobbying for their inclusion into the program. Although visitors from China and Russia can still enter the CNMI through a parole arrangement, there are considerable restraints due to certain requirements that visitors must comply. According to the Department of Homeland Security's final interim rule, visitors are required to do the following: 1. Complete the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver agreement I-736 form; 2. Complete the Non-Immigrant Visa Waiver Arrival/Departure I-94W green form; 3. Fill out the Guam-CNMI Visa Information form; 4. Must possess a valid unexpired International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) compliant and machine readable passport with no previous violations of any prior admissions to the United States. (Establishing U.S. Ports). Contrary to Japan Airlines departure from the CNMI and the diminished local immigration, the Marianas Visitors Authority is still optimistic in its efforts to continue increasing visitor arrivals to the CNMI despite limited funding from the government. In Fiscal Year 2008, MVA statistics show a slight growth by .29% compared to the previous year. With Japan's decline in arrivals at 6%, Korea saw an increase of 18%. Despite the fact that Japan and Korea are the primary markets in terms of numbers of visitors, arrivals from Russia rose tremendously tripling its growth of 103% compared to the previous year (Marianas Visitors Authority).

Another major reason for the decline in marine sports is due to lack of restrictions on maximum prices set for services which are offered to customers. For example, most small businesses operating on hotel beachfronts are not affiliated with tour agencies. To compensate their continued need for customers, businesses would temporarily hire or contract illegal third party agents called "kyakuhiki" which is the Japanese word for "customer puller" (http://www.freedict.com). However, the Japanese term "shoubai" meaning (to do) "business; trade; transaction" (http://www.freedict.com) is how customer pullers are associated with throughout such small business operations. Many shoubai are unemployed and unlicensed to engage in legitimate business practices in the CNMI, but it is their freelance aggressiveness towards potential hard-to-attract customers that lures non-affiliated marine sports businesses to compensate shoubai via commissions in return for such a service. The adverse effects of either overcharging customers or undercutting the competition that shoubai create results in the harassment of tourists which eventually discourages these visitors from returning to the CNMI, all because of a terrible experience, thus tarnishing the reputation of the CNMI's tourism hospitality industry.

Inadvertently legitimate marine sports businesses have little or no control regarding how these shoubai individuals operate. In addition, not much is known about how these shoubai transactions are conducted due to poor accountability measures on the part of such small