First and foremost, leave the American Memorial Park alone.\u00a0\u00a0This is not the place for the CNMI to begin its economic recovery even if it were with good intentions.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s definitely not the place for backdoor deals.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a veterans memorial and it should be reserved for honoring those sacrifices, not for digging the CNMI out of its gluttony.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You want suggestions for earning additional revenue?\u00a0\u00a0Start with cleaning up all CNMI parks and beaches and make them presentable.\u00a0\u00a0Once that\u2019s done, charge park admissions at CNMI parks for all nonresidents or charge upon CNMI entry an All-Parks Pass as part of nonresident entry fee into the CNMI.\u00a0\u00a0This could be collected prior to being allowed to disembark from the airport.\u00a0\u00a0Another option is a leisure\/recreation departure tax to all departing tourists.\u00a0\u00a0Japan has a sayonara tax it collects from every nonresident departing; that\u2019s about $10 per person.\u00a0\u00a0Departure tax in China is roughly $11 per person.\u00a0\u00a0Departure tax leaving Korea is about $10.\u00a0Departure from Yap, $20.\u00a0Departure from Pohnpei, $20; Chuuk, $20; Kosrae, $15.\u00a0Non-Palau passport holders, $50 departure tax and green fee.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone does it except the CNMI.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Practically every tourist that visits the CNMI comes from a country that would charge CNMI residents a departure tax if we visited there, so why not charge them likewise?\u00a0\u00a0Charge 15% infrastructure\/road tax to all tourists that rent a vehicle.\u00a0Tourist hotel tax?\u00a0This list could go on and on. Foreign investors hate these taxes but they will still invest.\u00a0\u00a0That said, the challenge is keeping foreign investors from stuffing CNMI politicians\u2019 pockets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t rocket science. Stop lining politicians\u2019 greedy pockets with backdoor money from foreign investors and start charging tourists the same way every other tourist destination in the world does.\u00a0\u00a0Invest tourist tax revenue in tourist attractions and more tourists will come as facilities and beaches improve.\u00a0\u00a0Invest in your strengths.\u00a0Beaches, dive sites, parks\u2026 The beaches could have nice covered cabanas, showers, and restrooms vice the junk we have.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mica F. Cochran<\/strong> First and foremost, leave the American Memorial Park alone.\u00a0\u00a0This is not the place for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":321679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[182,4993],"class_list":["post-327032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-capital-hill","tag-lee-pan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327032","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCapital Hill, Saipan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"