The Marianas Visitors Authority hopes to meet with the islands\u2019 land tour operators next week to begin discussion on the proposed regulations for Public Law 18-58, according to MVA\u2019s managing director Perry Tenorio. Once implemented, the regulations would usher in a certification program for tour operators and guides in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect this process to take more than one meeting and [we] are still targeting full implementation by May 1, 2015,\u201d Tenorio told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
According to the law, the certificates would ensure minimum proficiency in the English language and successful training on the CNMI\u2019s history, culture, and scenic attractions of the islands.<\/p>\n
The law also allows the charging of \u201creasonable fees\u201d to carry out these mandates. Further, it requires businesses to \u201cbe a member in good standing of MVA\u201d in order to obtain a license to do business as a tour operator, on top of the certification and other things.<\/p>\n
MVA has stated the importance of these regulations to ensure quality of service and care of visitors on the islands.<\/p>\n
In a board meeting last month, MVA directors also stressed the importance of \u201ctrue enforcement\u201d of these regulations. Security guards in place at some of the major tourist attractions on island were pointed to as an existing third party for this enforcement.<\/p>\n
A \u201cworking plan\u201d of six months was set as the timeframe to officially start the certification program.<\/p>\n
On the table is a plan to have tour guides and operators complete 30 instructional hours for certification, with 20 hours of classroom instruction, and 10 hours of field instruction, according to Tenorio. But \u201cthis is subject to change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Tenorio said MVA would look to revisit the college to discuss the specifics of such a program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Marianas Visitors Authority hopes to meet with the islands\u2019 land tour operators next week…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[212,223,216,1275],"class_list":["post-184977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-mva","tag-party","tag-perry-tenorio","tag-public-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184977","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}