The federal government is set to promulgate regulations pertaining to the said visa waiver program on or before Nov. 4, 2008 — the federal election date — but there’s nothing in the law that precludes it from imposing new rules without public comments.
Rep. Diego T. Benavente, chairman of the House Committee on U.S. and Foreign Affairs, said the inclusion of Russian and Chinese tourists on the visa waiver program is crucial to the sluggish tourism-based economy of the CNMI.
Benavente, R-Saipan and the main sponsor of House Joint Resolution 16-14, which the House adopted during their session yesterday, said over the past 10 years about 400,000 Russian and Chinese tourists have visited the CNMI.
During the period, there was no record of any Russian overstayer and just 12 incidents of Chinese tourists caught for overstaying in this tiny island-chain of the U.S.
Benavente said Russia and China are two of the most important potential tourist markets for the CNMI, thus, should be included in the visa waiver program for the Marianas.
According to the resolution, “It is estimated that the economic impact of 2008-on-island visitor expenditures for Russian and Chinese tourists will total approximately $200 million, even as the commonwealth government’s revenues have decreased by over 30 percent during the past three years to a current level of less than $160 million annually.”
Russian tourists account for just 1 percent of the total visitor arrivals in the commonwealth but travel experts believe there’s a good chance to improve its numbers.
Chinese tourists, on the other hand, account for over 10 percent of travelers visiting the islands every year.
The U.S. exempts citizens of more than two dozen countries from visa requirements in entering Guam and the Northern Marianas. Japan, the main tourism market of the islands, is among those included in the waiver program.
