Department of Commerce officials are on a fact-finding mission to develop and enforce regulations to curb the growing issue of illegal tour operators in the Commonwealth with sometimes questionable vehicle and liability insurance policies that business leaders believe do not adequately protect tourists and could harm the image of the CNMI\u2019s vital and only industry.<\/p>\n
Commerce Secretary Mark Rabauliman told Saipan Tribune a working group has been formed to promulgate these rules, in light of a recent law to have tour vehicles register with the government. He said they aim to publish the rules sometime by mid-to-the-end of February this year, with an intent to carry out a \u201cfull media blitz\u201d\u2014like with their work on a previous alcohol and tobacco campaigns\u2014to disseminate information to the public of \u201cwhat\u2019s written in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nothing personal,\u201d Rabauliman said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan calls these operators \u201crogue.\u201d He believes the issue comes down to protecting the CNMI\u2019s tourists from illegal or smaller operations that don\u2019t have the capability of carrying heavier or larger insurance policies.\u201c\u2026Certain companies have very little liability insurance and cap out very quickly and families are left holding the bag,\u201d Sablan told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Government agencies that are responsible for business licensing and providing these individuals the ability to operate should make sure there is sufficient liability insurance in the Commonwealth for tour operators, Sablan said. Secondly, the government needs to develop certification of tour guides so that guides \u201cknow how to operate, know the history of the Commonwealth, its flora and fauna,\u201d so they can tell \u201cthe right message consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems to me that there are no regulations that dictate what type of tour company can even start here,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026It\u2019s all about protecting our No. 1 industry and making sure our tourists are being taken cared of both from a tourists standpoint and heaven forbid\u2014on the possibility that someone gets hurt or injured\u2014that there is some insurance that can cover that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closing the loopholes<\/strong><\/p>\n On the word \u201cillegal,\u201d Rabauliman said it\u2019s sometimes the matter of having regulations and laws in place with \u201csome not informed, as they need to be.\u201d He said they are trying to close these \u201cloopholes\u201d to ensure all business activities conform and comply across the board. <\/p>\n \u201cSo that there will be no misinterpretation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Closing these loopholes could mean a clear definition of \u201cwhat is a tour company or a tour operator is?\u201d or \u201cwhat is a taxi\u201d or \u201cwhat is grounds transportation\u201d and things of that nature, Rabauliman explained. \u201cWe just need to have a clear definition so that way every regulator agency will be using the same definition.\u201d<\/p>\n For Sablan, it\u2019s also about \u201cmaintaining the follow up.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s been known that companies take on some policies and [then] they cancel the policies\u2014whether it be vehicle or liability\u2014just to get a business license.<\/p>\n \u201cWith some of these insurance companies you can pay monthly, quarterly, semi-annually. So these guys get the policy and they cancel it or lower the threshold and nobody has a reporting aspect for that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n On vehicle insurance, Sablan does not understand why there appears to be \u201cno connection\u201d between the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and insurance companies. \u201cWhen somebody cancels a policy, that should be an automatic red flag to BMV and BMV should follow up with that tour operator\u2014whether it be a tour operator or a local vehicle. That\u2019s a significant liability for the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Department of Commerce officials are on a fact-finding mission to develop and enforce regulations to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[56,26,7911,38],"class_list":["post-219670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-business-3","tag-cnmi","tag-saipan-chamber","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219670","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=219670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}