09-28-07

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It's that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

We have all heard about the military build up that will be taking place on Guam in the next few years, and we have also heard that the CNMI will be benefiting from the build up of troops. So far the major ways I've heard that the CNMI will be benefiting is through a firing range on the island of Tinian, and more troop exercises and training on Tinian, and from a huge influx of military personnel who will want to get away from Guam for a few days for some R&R. Now I really hope that is true, but I guess the skeptic in me is saying, let's just wait a minute here.

There is already a fairly sizable military presence on Guam; there are thousands of soldiers and their families already stationed on Guam. But how many of them do we see coming to Saipan, Tinian or Rota for a couple day getaway? Maybe I'm just in the wrong places or not paying attention, but I very rarely ever see military visitors from Guam unless we have a military ship in port. I'd like to see some hard statistics on this, but I'm guessing that excluding ship visitors, you could probably count all the military visitors from Guam each month on your fingers. So if we're not getting the military visitors from Guam right now when there are already thousands of them there, why should we believe that we'll all the sudden see a drastic increase in our military visitors when we get the additional marines on Guam? It just doesn't compute to me.

So why aren't we getting the military visitors right now? Are there reasons that the military personnel aren't willing to make the 45-minute flight for a change of scenery and a change of pace? I know that if I were in the military on Guam, I'd probably be looking for getaway options just to help preserve my sanity. Could part of the problem be that the cost of a trip from Guam to Saipan is usually prohibitively expensive for them? I saw recently where Cape Air was offering $129 fares to Guam for a limited time. So why do they normally charge closer to $200 for the trip? Is it really that expensive to operate flights between the islands? Why can Hawaii manage to offer flights between the islands for less than $50 a ticket? I'll readily admit that I'm not an expert in the aviation industry and there may be very good reasons why they have to charge so much for flights between Saipan and Guam, but I'm quite certain that doesn't help encourage the military personnel to come over here for a weekend.

So will the military start sending their own troop transport planes back and forth to offer affordable getaways to the CNMI? After all, if the United States is serious about wanting to help improve the economy of the CNMI, why wouldn't they schedule regular flights of their military troop transport planes to shuttle soldiers back and forth affordably? It's not like they aren't always taking flights almost everywhere else just as a part of their regular exercises. Why not make a part of those exercises regularly scheduled flights to Saipan? I'm sure we'd see a lot more military visitors if they could get here for free, or at least very affordably.

Would Uncle Sam be willing to buy one of those Super Ferry's like the one they are trying to get started in Hawaii? It would certainly open up all kinds of new opportunities for not only Saipan, but for Guam as well. They operate such ferries for the military in other destinations, why not here? If the U.S. is really that concerned about making sure that the CNMI benefits from the troop buildup and military expansion on Guam, these are a couple things they could easily do that would make an immediate impact. Otherwise I guess I have to wonder how much of what they are saying is just political posturing, or are they trying to put on pressure about the federalization of the CNMI's immigration?

Then there is the local angle to getting military visitors from Guam. Are we doing everything we can to entice them to visit our beautiful islands? Do we have the kinds of activities they would be willing to come over here for? How accessible are those activities? We already know we can't compete with Bali, Thailand or the Philippines for price; those are all much cheaper destinations. We also know that they won't be coming over because of our superior selection of restaurants or shopping.

I have heard from many divers that they believe our diving on Saipan is superior to that on Guam, so that's one thing we have going for us. But how easy is it for military personnel and their families to come here to go diving? The only 2 dive shops that used to primarily cater to the English-speaking crowd are not in business any longer. Stingray and Abracadabra dive shop are now closed. Abracadabra was bought out and is now a Japanese only dive operation. There are a couple other shops that will deal with English speakers, All American or Dive Saipan and Speedy Tertle, but English speakers are certainly not their focus. One of them focuses on the Korean market and the other focuses on the Russian market, although they will take out others if you can set something up with them. There is also the problem that these dive shops are not able to keep their doors open during business hours all the time anymore. You can go there in the middle of the day and find the doors locked, or not be able to get your tanks filled. That's not something that a visiting diver wants to find.

The dive shops won't rent equipment to the military visitors though unless they are booking a dive through them, or are going out with a known local diver. They say it's a liability issue and they are afraid they might be going to the Grotto without someone knowledgeable about the Grotto. And then there are other Dive Masters on island who do concentrate on the English speaking market, but one of them has come out saying he doesn't want to have to deal with taking out military divers.

If we are expecting the military to come to Saipan for the diving, then we'd better do a little better job of making it easy for them to find and communicate with a shop that will deal with them, and make it easy for them to set up a dive getaway. If they have a bad experience here, or can't rent gear, or can't find anyone they can speak to about diving on Saipan they won't be back. And they will most likely tell their friends and fellow soldiers on Guam about their experience. I believe that we can do a much better job in this area, and it may be a wide-open business opportunity for those looking for a niche.

Some of them might want to come over to join in the various races we seem to have continually on Saipan, but they need to know about them ahead of time and have time to plan for it. They might also need to be able to rent bikes on Saipan to participate in some of the races. This is another potential niche market that so far really hasn't been explored or exploited.

Then there is also the possibility of having a Bed & Breakfast or a home stay industry pop up to accommodate our military visitors on a limited budget. I know we have a lot of people with spare bedrooms in their homes, or with empty houses they could be renting out for weekend visitors. But this has not really been explored or set up yet either. If we are going to benefit from the military build up, I believe it is going to require us to look outside of the box and to approach things differently than we have in the past. Military visitors will not be the same as the tourists we get from Japan, Korea or China, they will be looking for different things, and will probably not be as easily impressed. Remember, they are living on a tropical island already, so the fact that we have sun, sand and ocean is really not enough to get their attention. We need to find out what they want, and then make sure that we are not only offering it here, but also making it easy and accessible for them.

We can start promoting Saipan as a destination for our troops right now, and I'm doing that through articles I'm writing for Stars & Stripes newspaper, but if we aren't ready for them and aren't offering what they are interested in, we may not be doing ourselves any favors. We need to make sure that our military visitors leave here with a great impression of Saipan, Tinian or Rota and that they have the opportunity to do everything they are planning. If there are additional things they would like to do but no one is offering those services at this point, is that a business opportunity you'd like to take advantage of?

We've heard a lot of talk from the U.S. and from the military about how they want to see the CNMI benefit from the military build up, but are they willing to make it easier and more affordable for the troops to get here? And I don't buy the argument that if they started running flights back and forth it would hurt the private airlines. I don't see any military personnel using the private airlines anyway.

The military build up on Guam and the increase in troops stationed on Guam could be a big benefit to the CNMI, but if we don't give them better reasons to come here than currently exist, we won't benefit from the build up and won't see any increase in visitors.

I'm Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

For more thoughts, pictures and observations, feel free to visit my personal blog at www.saipandiver.blogspot.com