{"id":288543,"date":"2018-11-14T06:03:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T20:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=288543"},"modified":"2018-11-14T06:03:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T20:03:19","slug":"saipan-adventure-aids-cleanup-of-tourist-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-adventure-aids-cleanup-of-tourist-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan Adventure aids cleanup of tourist sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_288544\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288544\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" class=\"size-full wp-image-288544\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-288544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff of tour operator Saipan Adventure cleans award-winning dive site Grotto on Oct. 30, 2018, in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu. The group also reinstalled the site\u2019s conservation site and marked unsafe areas with caution tape. (MVA Photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As Saipan and Tinian rise to their feet again following the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yutu in the Marianas last month, the community is also stepping up make the islands\u2019 affected scenic and historic sites accessible again to the public and to the expected return of tourists shortly. <\/p>\n<p>The islands\u2019 bustling tourism economy based on its tropical natural beauty is anticipated to resume with the re-opening of the Francisco C. Ada\/Saipan International Airport for daytime flights only on Nov. 15, 2018. <\/p>\n<p>While government resources are focused on more populated areas, local businesses like tour operator Saipan Adventure have taken the lead to clear roads to more remote locations that are the foundation of Saipan\u2019s charm. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSaipan is still beautiful,\u201d said Saipan Adventure owner Mickey Kim. \u201cAt this time, everyone is having a hard time and many have lost much. The government\u2019s main focus is to help the people, so we wanted to do give a little extra help by starting to clean Marpi.\u201d <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_288545\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288545\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-288545\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-288545\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff of tour operator Saipan Adventure clears roadways in scenic Marpi on Oct. 31, 2018, in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu. From left are Bernard Nugam, Edward Lacanlale, Alston Santos, and Timothy Tawanpiy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_288546\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288546\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" class=\"size-full wp-image-288546\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-288546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff of tour operator Saipan Adventure clear the roadway to Forbidden Island in scenic Marpi on Nov. 3, 2018, in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu. From left are Edward Lacanlale, Bernard Nugam, and TJ Hemley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Oct. 30, 2018, tour guides and other staff of Saipan Adventure took to the roads with chainsaws and machetes in hand to restore some of Saipan\u2019s most popular scenic sites. First on the list was working with the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to clear access to and collect debris at award-winning dive site Grotto and other roads in Marpi. They also installed security tape around unsafe areas at the site. After several days\u2019 work in the Marpi area, the team turned its attention to Forbidden Island, clearing the access road, re-installing signs, and now clearing the hiking trail. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are just so thankful to Saipan Adventure and all the other industry companies that are helping the government restore the islands to normalcy. There are really more than we can name, and many of them have staff either providing relief in the villages, collecting debris, and working on site restoration,\u201d said Marianas Visitors Authority executive director Christopher A. Concepcion. \u201cOur motto is \u2018Tourism is Everybody\u2019s Business,\u2019 and through the outpouring of support we are seeing from the industry in this typhoon recovery, we see that in the Marianas community, \u2018Everybody is Tourism\u2019s Business\u2019 too. We are definitely stronger together&#8230;that is really one of the characteristics of the Marianas that has shown through in this situation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The MVA also started clearing other tourist sites in Marpi last week. (MVA)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_288547\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288547\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Saipan-pix5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-288547\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-288547\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff of tour operator Saipan Adventure clear the trail to Forbidden island on Nov. 3, 2018, in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu. From left are Bernard Nugam, TJ Hemley, Timothy Tawanpiy, Johnny Rosokow, Edward Lacanlale, and Angel Hermoso.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Saipan and Tinian rise to their feet again following the onslaught of Super Typhoon&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":288544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[23251,23252,16902,23107],"class_list":["post-288543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biba-marianas","tag-bernard-nugam","tag-edward-lacanlale","tag-saipan-adventure","tag-super-typhoon-yutu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288543","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}