The planned \u201ctravel bubble,\u201d when the CNMI cautiously reopens its tourism sector, has been pushed back and the Marianas Visitors Authority has a new target date\u2014February.<\/p>\n
MVA, in partnership with the E-Land Group of Companies, which owns three hotel properties in the CNMI, were expecting to launch the \u201ctravel bubble\u201d with South Korea back on Jan. 8 but that didn\u2019t happen, with acting MVA board chair Gloria Cavanaugh saying they couldn\u2019t get a charter flight approved for the target date, hence the delay.<\/p>\n
She said they are actively applying for another charter and the MVA is hopeful that the program will commence in early February.<\/p>\n
\u201cJan. 18 is when we\u2019re going to reapply for the charter. Our next target date will be early February,\u201d Cavanagh said.<\/p>\n
MVA is still waiting for travel restrictions in South Korea to loosen up before they can reapply for a charter flight from South Korea to the CNMI. \u201cIt\u2019s because of the high level that they are in right now. They\u2019re at 2.5, which is the second [risk level]. That is until Jan. 17. So, after Jan. 17, we will reapply for the charter. It looks like [the South Korean government] is okay with it. It\u2019s just what we have to go through a couple of different agencies in order to get the approval. So, it\u2019s still on,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Cavanaugh said it\u2019s a good sign that tour agencies across South Korea are receptive to the idea and that there is \u201ca lot of chatter\u201d about the program. Cavanaugh added that all major tour agencies in South Korea know about the CNMI\u2019s \u201ctravel bubble\u201d plan but tours cannot be sold yet until a date is confirmed and a confirmed date cannot be made until there is a charter. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the major tour agents know about it. There\u2019s chatter within the [community] so people do know about it. But the tour agents are not going to go out and actively sell it yet until they actually have a confirmed date. So there\u2019s a lot of chatter. There\u2019s a lot of interest in it, but there\u2019s no confirmation on the reservations [and] that is because there isn\u2019t a date. Once there is a date, then the tour agent will actually go out and [sell the program],\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
A travel bubble is an exclusive arrangement between two jurisdictions that will allow the relatively easier transit between the two areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The planned \u201ctravel bubble,\u201d when the CNMI cautiously reopens its tourism sector, has been pushed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":336744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-336719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336719","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}