Jim Arenovski, chamber president, said this will allow the CNMI to continue welcoming Russian and Chinese tourists who are not included in the visa waiver program under the federalization, which is set to take effect on June 1.
Arenovski said the extension will also allow federal agencies to put in place security measures that the U.S. Department of Homeland and Security believes are necessary.
Arenovshi said the chamber has already asked Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Sablan to push for the 180-day extension.
In his brief message during the general membership meeting of the chamber at the Hyatt Regency Resort yesterday, Arenovski said he has been in touch with Homeland Security which informed him that it is preparing the regulations for the implementation of the federalization law.
These regulations will provide more details about the CNMI-only transitional worker program and the CNMI-only foreign investor visa regulations.
“We still need to see the new regulation on how to get these new visas, to determine if they are truly more difficult or expensive to obtain,” Arenovshi said.
He admitted that the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program regulations under the federalization law will “severely hamper” the efforts of the commonwealth to attract more Russian and Chinese tourists.
He said Russian and Chinese visitors contribute 20 percent of the total tourist expenditures on island.
“A sharp decrease in Russian and Chinese tourist arrivals will hurt hotels, airlines, tour agents, retail stores, and all of this will trickle down to many of our individual businesses, even if we’re not directly in the tourism industry, and will certainly negatively impact government revenues,” he said.
