The 40-plus group of YouTube influencers and media personnel that flew in last Saturday for a familiarization tour of the CNMI is very important for the CNMI as this visit\u2014ahead of a planned Travel Bubble between Saipan and South Korea\u2014will jumpstart the whole tourism industry, according to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a radio press briefing last Friday, Torres said the tour program\u2014referred to in the travel industry as a FAM tour\u2014is critical as the CNMI will be starting the travel bubble program at the end of this month. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have actually key partners, stakeholders of the agencies, as well as other business partners that are coming in this FAM tour,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The governor said the government will make sure that the FAM tour program\u2014an initiative of the Marianas Visitors Authority\u2014goes smoothly and seamlessly.<\/p>\n
He hopes the FAM tour participants will have a great experience so that they will have positive words about the CNMI and share their experiences here when they go back to their country. That way, the CNMI will have a good package to sell and not just for Saipan, but Rota and Tinian as well, he added. \u201cSo that\u2019s very exciting and we look forward to that. I hope that we can grace them with open arms and offer assistance in any way that we can,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
He urged people to continue to be hospitable and showcase what they have here in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
The CNMI\u2019s first group of tourists arrived at the Francisco C. Ada\/Saipan International Airport last Saturday afternoon\u2014more than a year since the CNMI closed its borders to tourists due to COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
MVA and Commonwealth Ports Authority\u2019s officials and staff welcomed the members of the FAM Tour with warm hafa adai and tirow greetings at the airport. <\/p>\n
In the FAM Tour are about 40 travel agents, YouTubers and other social media influencers, and a film crew. <\/p>\n
The CNMI and South Korea established a Travel Bubble that took effect on July 1, 2021 when Torres and Vice Minister Seong-Kyo Hwang of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea signed the agreement. The agreement facilitates the resumption of air travel between the CNMI and South Korea during the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 40-plus group of YouTube influencers and media personnel that flew in last Saturday for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":348380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348379","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\/348379","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}