The Marianas Visitors Authority recently promoted Saipan, Tinian, and Rota at the Pacific Asia Travel Association Travel Mart 2009 in Hangzhou, China.

The goal of the travel mart held Sept. 22-25, 2009, was to allow one-on-one business appointments between hundreds of tourism and travel buyers and sellers.

The Northern Mariana Islands had 40 appointments with buyers from Europe, Asia, the United States, Australia, and Russia. Most of these buyers were looking for new destinations for their clients. During the pre-arranged meetings, MVA managing director Judy Torres presented the Northern Marianas as a new destination to the Asian region and as a long-haul destination to the European markets.

“Rather than MVA going to each country, we are able to meet them on this important annual show sponsored by PATA,” said Torres. “It is a tremendous cost-saving strategy.”

As the region's premier contracting and business networking event-registration was considerably higher at this year's PATA Travel Mart than in 2008.

“We were able to highlight the NMI during our one-on-one sessions by presenting our destination, location, offerings, and other essential information,” said Torres. “We answered their questions and exchanged contact information that our MVA members can use to introduce local products and services.”

The Northern Marianas also joined Guam, Palau, and the Marshall Islands at a designated pavilion to cooperatively promote the Micronesia destination.

Editor: Ben