“Instead of trying to attract more Russian and Chinese tourists, let’s deal with what we have right now like Japanese and Koreans. The cost of wanting more from the Chinese market may affect our current markets,” said Hofschneider, R-Tinian.
Japan and Korea account for nearly 90 percent of tourists visiting the islands every year.
Hofschneider said although Russia and China are likely not to be included on the list of countries privileged to enter the CNMI and Guam visa free, travelers from the two nations can still come here if they get a U.S. visa for tourism purposes.
Under the yet to be implemented Guam-CNMI visa waiver program, the territories will only admit citizens of 34 nations under a similar U.S. program. Russia and China are not included on the list.
The CNMI said it stands to lose more than $200 million in potential economic activities without the steady influx of Russian and Chinese tourists.
The locally controlled immigration system allows Russian and Chinese tourists to enter the islands without a U.S. visa. They are instead issued the so-called visitors entry permit or VEPs.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said security concerns were raised on the inclusion of Russia and China on the Marianas visa waiver program.
Federal officials said unless there are compelling new information that would convince them to include the two countries on the visa privileged countries, their exclusion will stay.
Reports previously submitted to the U.S. Congress noted criminal activities of Russian mafia and Chinese triads in the region.
But Governor Benigno R. Fitial said Russian and Chinese tourists are very important major emerging markets for the CNMI’s sluggish tourism economy.
For instance, if the CNMI can get one weekly charter flight from Russia with 300 passengers they could bring in about $156 million in economic activities in one year as each Russian tourist typically spends $10,000 per trip, including airfare.
Chinese tourists don’t spend as much as Russians in the CNMI but local research show they are also an important source of economic activities for many tourism-related businesses here.
However, many of them prefer to travel to the U.S. mainland rather than to outlying American territories like the CNMI, if they get a U.S. visa.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, China is currently the fastest growing travel market in the world, with at least 100 million Chinese estimated to travel overseas by 2020.
In 2006, China ranked as the 17th largest international travel market for the U.S. with over 320,000 Chinese visitors spending $1.6 billion on U.S. travel goods and services and $431 million to U.S. carriers, the department said in its report.
Last year, the U.S. signed a “Leisure Travel Memorandum of Understanding” with China agreeing to allow Chinese travel agencies to work with U.S. companies to organize and market packaged group leisure tours to the U.S.
