“NMI’s economy faces complete collapse”

Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero, in her follow-up letter to US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, echoed the local business community’s warning that “unless immediate action is taken to increase visitor arrivals, the economy of the CNMI faces a complete problem”. economic collapse.â€

She was referring to the joint statement of the Hotel Association of Acting NMI Dennis Seo and Saipan Chamber of Commerce President Joe C. Guerrero at an economic forum during which they also presented their Operation 500K plan, which aims to bring at least 500,000 visitors to the CNMI each year. In 2023, visitor arrivals reached 215,543 alone.

Deleon Guerrero told Buttigieg that although the USDOT has increased to 50 from 35, the number of flights from China to the US after her request in February. 26, 2024 to exclude the CNMI from the federal border, USDOT has not acted on the Commonwealth Ports Authority’s request in August 2023 to reinstate Annex VI of the US-China bilateral agreement.

Annex VI exempts the CNMI from restrictions on the frequency of flights between the US and China.

The Senate President said the CPA letter, which the USDOT received almost a year ago, was supported by the CNMI Legislature, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, HANMI and US Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan.

“Time is of the essence in this matter,” Deleon Guerrero told Buttigieg.

Meanwhile, she said, the CNMI economy is “deteriorating and slipping into a state of crisis.” She said it is critical that the CNMI be allowed to bring in Chinese visitors to increase the loss of revenue from the CNMI’s low visitor arrival rates. since the Covid-19 pandemic.

She also noted that since her February. Letter 24, 2024 Hyatt Regency Saipan and local Asiana Airlines office have closed their doors. She said there are also smaller businesses that have closed and more are planning to do so in the coming months if there is no improvement in the CNMI’s economic activities.

Deleon Guerrero said the USDOT’s cap on weekly flights from China “is preventing the CNMI from restoring our Chinese visitor numbers.”

Before the pandemic, China was the CNMI’s second largest tourism market with 185,536 arrivals in 2019. In fiscal 2023, Chinese arrivals reached 4,309. Direct flights from mainland China to the CNMI have not yet resumed.

Deleon Guerrero said the CNMI is seeking to restore an exemption that has already been authorized and existed before the pandemic, rather than seeking a new exemption.

The Senate President reiterated her request for a favorable response to the CPA’s letter.