‘Guam’s military population encouraged to tour CNMI’

Benjamin Nicholson

Joint Region Marianas commander Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson met with Gov. Arnold I. Palacios in the governor’s conference room Friday afternoon, during which they discussed upcoming military exercises in the CNMI and Palacios’ plan to develop military tourism to pivot away from the China tourism market, among other topics.

Nicholson said in an interview shortly after that the meeting sought to strengthen the military’s partnership with the CNMI and a chance to talk with Palacios and his staff about some of the upcoming exercises that will be taking place this summer.

He said some of the exercises will take place in and around the CNMI, so they want to make sure that the governor was fully aware of these plans.

The commander said they also wanted to make sure to have their responses ready in case Palacios has questions about those exercises.

“Normally a lot of these take place at a lower level between our folks that run the range and the Bureau of Military Affairs here in CNMI. But this is the first large exercise season with Palacios as the governor,” Nicholson said.

He said they want Palacios to understand what’s going on, being the chief executive of the CNMI, and to have a chance to ask questions.

Nicholson said the other main purpose of their meeting is to just give Palacios a better overview of what the military is doing in the region and have a better understanding of how their forces in Guam can springboard from there to go to other places and come to the CNMI in defense of the CNMI, if necessary.

In response to questions about military tourism, Nicholson said Palacios told him that he would like to see more military training in the CNMI because any time that they come to the CNMI, whether it is on Saipan, Tinian, or Rota, cash is injected into the local economy.

“We always need the support of the local economy when we are operating, or training in a location,” he said.

Palacios recently disclosed that the administration has started developing military tourism, given the recent relocation of over 5,000 military personnel from Japan to Guam.

Palacios said if the CNMI succeeds in developing military tourism, the administration may be open to incentivizing flights from Guam to Saipan.

Nicholson said Palacios asked if they can have some more ship visits Saipan. “We are looking at that and I can’t give you the specifics but I think we’ve got some things lined up here not too far in the future where we can have ship visits to Saipan,” Nicholson said.

He said one of the things that he shared with Palacios is that they have a significant military population in Guam and that they have been on a campaign to encourage that population to tour the region. Nicholson said Saipan, Tinian, and Rota are some of the places where they encourage military members and their families to tour.

Early this year, he noted, they held a large fair in the CNMI—what they call Morale Welfare and Recreation Fair—where they had different representatives of the tourism industry in the CNMI go to that fair and display the things the military and their families can do in the CNMI.

“We are trying to encourage tourism from within the military ranks, for their family members because there’s a lot of great stuff to do here,” Nicholson said.

First of all, they all know about the significant and the rich history of this region, he said, but there’s also some world-class golf and some phenomenal resorts here.

“There’s great water parks for the kids, there’s unbelievable scuba diving and snorkeling. All of these things are great and we want to encourage our military members and family to take advantage of it because they are here in the region,” Nicholson said.