The Marianas Visitors Authority is looking at booking a new charter flight from South Korea to accommodate the pending \u201ctravel bubble\u201d program that they anticipate to launch in February. <\/p>\n
In an interview with acting MVA chair Gloria Cavanaugh, she said MVA is working on organizing another charter flight from South Korea to the CNMI on Jan. 18 to accommodate its plans, in partnership with E-Land Group of Companies, for a \u201ctravel bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJan. 18 is when we\u2019re going to reapply for the charter. So our next target date will be early February,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Cavanaugh said that once the Korean government is more secure, then they will push forward with their plans for a new charter. \u201cWe\u2019re just waiting for the Korea side to be more stable. Last year, the Korean government approved [the charter] and then the following day they rescinded it. We believe that it\u2019s because of the high level [of infections] that they are in right now. It\u2019s total closure of the country and that is until Jan. 17. So, after Jan. 17 we will reapply for a charter. So, it\u2019s still on. As far as the pilot stages, we\u2019re still ready and still the same protocols,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Fortunately, Cavanaugh said, all the major tour agencies in South Korea know about the CNMI\u2019s plans for a \u201ctravel bubble\u201d but the tour 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 [the travel bubbler] 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 agents 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 a relatively easier exchange of travelers between the two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Marianas Visitors Authority is looking at booking a new charter flight from South Korea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":336910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-336893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-mva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336893","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=336893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}