Archive - July 9, 2024

Inside the Reef Doing the same thing, expecting a different result By Joyce McClure   A few years before Covid slammed the door shut on tourism, I was working with the Yap Visitors Bureau and researched ways that Yap might promote the island to more than divers. The marketing director began to explore opportunities to attract special-interest groups interested in World War II. The result was a visit by a tour company that focuses on war buffs. It’s not a huge market, but big enough to warrant getting Yap on their schedule for visits by travelers who have never heard of the island where the Japanese surrendered and the wreckage of planes that were downed in dogfights during the last year of the war are memorials. Reading the stories about Guam and CNMI and their struggles to recapture the tourism market, I am struck by the effort being put toward . . .