MARIANAS Visitors Authority Managing Director Priscilla M. Iakopo on Tuesday said regardless of the new travel protocols that take effect today, Friday, Nov. 19, the CNMI still encourages South Korean visitors traveling through the travel bubble program to be vaccinated.
“Since the beginning of the travel bubble agreement with South Korea, that is what has always been implemented… We encourage all vaccinated tourists from South Korea to enter…. So now, with this new protocol implemented, we absolutely stand by [our] decision,” she said.
She noted that there is a difference between the travel bubble program and the CNMI Tourism Resumption Investment Plan, or TRIP, program.
“[TRIP] will continue for South Korea all the way until the end of December, as approved by our MVA board of directors. At the same time, we still want to implement [a] similar program with the Japan market,” she said.
At Tuesday’s CNMI Safe Travel Summit, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said how the new protocols will affect the travel bubble travelers remains to be seen.
“We are looking at that… Our biggest concern is that…they don’t stay. With the [United Airlines] flights, most of the travelers are returning residents of the CNMI or [they have family] here. That’s why it does need a lot of collaboration and cooperation with the hotel industry and the travel industry as well,” Muna said.
In a separate interview, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said the CNMI has “worked so hard to be the safest island, safest place in the world, and I believe we’re still at that.”
He added, “We have achieved all of our goals practically from day one, to provide [personal protective equipment] to all of our health professionals, our schools, the government, and even to our private sector and community. I mean, we have done everything we can to protect our community, knowing the fact that…there is not any program that will 100% safeguard everybody, knowing that we have our returning residents coming back to the CNMI. But if you look at the [number] of inbound flights we’ve had since a year and a half ago, we have done an extraordinary job.”
Priscilla M. Iakopo
