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Travel Bubble participant not exempted from quarantine
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Posted on Aug 25 2021
The Marianas Visitors Authority assures the community that, like all incoming passengers, passengers participating in the CNMI-South Korea Travel Bubble are not exempted from the mandatory quarantine protocol.
In a short statement from MVA managing director Priscilla Iakopo, she shot down allegations that Travel Bubble passengers are exempted from the recently reinstated mandatory quarantine while returning residents are required to quarantine for five days.
“All Travel Bubble passengers are required to quarantine regardless of vaccination status,” she said. This is why Travel Bubble tourists are first quarantined at Pacific Islands Club Saipan for five days. After five days they are tested again. If they are still negative for COVID-19, that’s when they can transfer to either of the two “corridor hotels”: the Saipan World Resort or Kensington Hotel Saipan.
Priscilla Iakopo
Iakopo also told Saipan Tribune that the Travel Bubble has had a slow start but seems to be picking up with the holidays fast approaching.
“We’ve had a slow start, as it normally takes travel agencies at least 30 to 90 days to create and sell packages but since we started end of July we already have over 330 confirmed bookings through the end of September,” she said.
The managing director said that MVA only expects the number of booked Travel Bubble flights to increase with the Chuseok holiday just around the corner.
“We anticipate an increase in bookings due to the Chuseok Holiday (similar to Thanksgiving) in Korea. This is one of the busiest travel holidays for Korea,” she said.
Since the program launched back in July, MVA reported over 90 incoming passengers from South Korea.
Just two weeks ago, MVA decided to extend the Travel Investment Resumption Plan, or TRIP, to December to sustain the resumption of tourism in the CNMI. The Travel Bubble falls under this program.
The program primarily provides subsidies to airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and related businesses to help sustain efforts to revive the CNMI’s tourism industry. It was originally supposed to last just eight weeks, or only until about September but with the extension, travel agents in Korea will be given more time to properly promote the Marianas.
