Visitor arrivals to the Northern Mariana Islands last month have dropped by 23 percent compared with the same period last year.
According to the Marianas Visitors Authority, arrivals to the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota registered 27,203 visitors compared with 35,164 in July last year.
Overall, visitor arrivals have declined by seven percent this fiscal year to 279,195 visitors.
The Visitors Authority says in addition to travel being dampened by the March 2011 Japan earthquake, in July 2011 the CNMI received only two daily flights from Narita compared with three daily flights the same time last year.
It says arrivals from Japan dropped 39 percent last month to 10,151, meanwhile arrivals from the primary market of Korea dropped 17 percent to 8,997 arrivals.
The secondary market of China saw 4,898 arrivals in July, a nine percent increase.
