The Department of Public Lands has issued notices to 20 businesses, telling them to stop picking up tourists on Ma\u00f1agaha for parasailing, banana boating, snorkeling, scuba diving, or other water sports unless they are Tasi Tours or have an agreement with Tasi Tours, which has the exclusive concession rights to the famous tourist island.<\/p>\n
Ma\u00f1agaha, a world renowned snorkeling site, is visited by over 60 percent of all tourists who come to the CNMI annually.<\/p>\n
Some of the businesses affected by the DPL notice said yesterday they would like the department to reconsider.<\/p>\n
DPL Secretary Oscar M. Babauta said yesterday it\u2019s unfair to Tasi Tours to allow other businesses to pick up tourists on Ma\u00f1agaha for water sports, when Tasi Tours has a special recreational concession agreement with DPL.<\/p>\n
DPL issued the notices from December to last week.<\/p>\n
Babauta, in his letters to the affected businesses, cited a provision in the agreement for special recreational concession for Ma\u00f1agaha, which states that \u201cconcessionaires shall have exclusive right to operate all commercial concessions on Ma\u00f1agaha Island during the term of this agreement. The term \u2018commercial concessions\u2019 includes the right to\u2026the conduct of tours on the island and from the island\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The DPL secretary said only the concessionaire, or Tasi Tours, \u201ccan conduct tours on Ma\u00f1agaha Island or from Ma\u00f1agaha Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen tourists are picked up on Ma\u00f1agaha Island to go on a marine sport tour, whether it\u2019s parasailing, banana boating or the like, they are taking a tour \u2018from the island\u2019. If the tour is sold by a company other than the concessionaire, the concessionaire\u2019s exclusive right to operate all commercial concessions on Ma\u00f1agaha Island has been violated. It should be noted that this is regardless of whether the tourist is returned to Ma\u00f1agaha or taken back to Saipan after the water sports tour,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
Ray Cruz, director of compliance at DPL, said they issued 16 letters to beach concessionaries with DPL permits and four other operators, for a total of 20 letters.<\/p>\n
Babauta said that failure to comply with the notice could result in the revocation of DPL permits if they have one, or permanent ban from operating water sports on public lands, among other things.<\/p>\n
In his letter, he said DPL expects and requires all persons to abide by the 1993 rule that says all commercial activities on Ma\u00f1agaha Island \u201cshall be provided by one concessionaire only.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have sent this letter to all beach concessionaires and marine sports operators so that everyone will have a clear understanding of this rule,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Adonis Santos, president of Auto Marine Inc., said they hope DPL will reconsider.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t solicit customers on Ma\u00f1agaha. They\u2019ve booked the water sports with us so what we do is provide them parasailing, for example, and then give them time to relax before their next water sports so we drop them on Ma\u00f1agaha, and pick them up later for their next activity. They pay $5 on Ma\u00f1agaha,\u201d Santos said.<\/p>\n
Santos said Auto Marine Inc. has been in operation for 16 years and this is the first time that they\u2019re told they can no longer pick up their customers from Ma\u00f1agaha for water sports.<\/p>\n
DPL\u2019s Babauta said these businesses need not lose revenue because they can still provide the same water sports activity services to the same tourists, but not when they\u2019re already on Ma\u00f1agaha.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can provide the water sports activities before or after the tourists go to Ma\u00f1agaha,\u201d Babauta said.<\/p>\n
Santos said they have complied with the DPL notice since they received it on Jan. 5, but this has been affecting the tourists who now have to do all the water sports in succession instead of having relaxation time on Ma\u00f1agaha in between water sports.<\/p>\n
When it rains, for example, some tourists put off doing any water sport and stay on Ma\u00f1agaha while waiting for the weather to clear up. When the rain stops, they are picked up from Ma\u00f1agaha for their chosen water sports. That was before DPL issued the notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be difficult for tourists and us,\u201d said Santos, whose Auto Marine Inc. offers parasailing, sea walker, banana boat ride, snorkeling and Ma\u00f1agaha transfer services since 1996. He said they have an average of 80 customers daily, mostly Japanese, Chinese, and Korean tourists.<\/p>\n
Cora Pangelinan, co-owner of Island Marine Sports Inc., said even before DPL issued written notices, they had already received verbal notice as early as April 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the first victim of that policy,\u201d she said, adding that they have complied with the policy anyway.<\/p>\n
Effective Sept. 1, 2006, Tasi Tours\u2019 concession rights to Ma\u00f1agaha Island was renewed for 10 more years.<\/p>\n
At the time, Tasi Tours already paid its concession fees for the first five years, totaling $1.5 million.<\/p>\n
Ma\u00f1agaha Island sits at the entrance of Tanapag Harbor frequented by tourists from Japan, South Korea, China and other places. It is also a favorite weekend destination among local residents for its pristine beaches and cultural significance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Lands has issued notices to 20 businesses, telling them to stop picking up tourists on Ma\u00f1agaha for parasailing, banana boating, snorkeling, scuba diving, or other water sports unless they are Tasi Tours or have an agreement with Tasi Tours, which has the exclusive concession rights to the famous tourist island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}