“WE’RE back to square one,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on Friday of the travel bubble proposal.
He said with South Korea and Japan still on lockdown due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, there still is no international flight coming into the CNMI at this time.
But Torres said there is still hope. “We can’t dictate what our tourism partners should do…but we can continue to make sure that we cover our end here in the CNMI, making sure that when the tourist bubble opens up, we will be one of the first destinations to be considered safe,” he added.
“With the renovations and remodeling that we’ve been doing for the last seven months, I hope that we can see the new CNMI vision and promotion for our tourist destinations.”
Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, for his part, commended the governor’s Council of Economic Advisors for continuing to monitor the Asian tourism markets.
“The council, as you know, has been divided into major committees. One of them is focused on economic revitalization, particularly our tourism industry, [or] what, when, and how are we going to reset ourselves when tourists start coming back,” he said.
“We monitor that… and it’s a work in progress. We’re constantly looking at it.”
Meantime, the council and its private sector partners are looking at improving the CNMI through revitalization projects, Palacios said.
“That’s something that we can control. That’s something that we can do ourselves, right here waiting as we [prepare] to welcome visitors and tourists to the island,” he added.
Palacios noted that these projects are not just for tourists, but for the local community as well.
“It’s a long time coming,” he said, adding that the mayor’s office, lawmakers, other community members, and private partners have been coming together to improve the villages.
“I got to give the council real high commendation for proactively doing this and planning to get this done… it’s very impressive.”
The governor said there are 41 participants in the council’s Public-Private Partnership Program that is renovating and maintaining about 30 tourist sites throughout the CNMI.
“That’s really a big progress and a big success to see 41 private companies and organizations that have signed up to join this partnership for five years,” Torres said.
“We do live in the best place in the world, and we’re seeing that again throughout the challenges that we’ve been facing in the last several years.”
As for tapping new tourism markets, the governor said the Commonwealth sees potential in Taiwan and Vietnam.
“We welcome all our tourist partners,” he said. “The more tourist markets we have, the more we can diversify our tourism industry,” he added.
“I know that we’re not the only tourist destination that is facing challenges. That’s just the reality, but we will continue to reach out to many potential markets.”
