Kilili wants NMI to share visitors center with Guam

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) wants the Marianas Trench Marine Monument Visitor Center to be built on Rota so it can be co-managed with the University of Guam.

“If we put it on Rota, that’s another economic development for the island. Not only that, the University of Guam has a very vibrant and very large marine laboratory. They do research and have scientists from all over the world who conduct marine research under the UOG marine lab,” he told Saipan Tribune.

As it is, Sablan said, the CNMI has problems maintaining its infrastructure and co-managing the visitors center with the UOG would solve that problem.

“What will the CNMI do if we get a visitors center and we have to maintain it? We may have a little problem maintaining the infrastructure. I would like this venture—the Marianas Trench actually belongs to both the CNMI and Guam—to be shared [with] Guam. One way we can do it is if we build it on Rota. It will be close to Guam and just right on the water and work with UOG. Please start thinking big. We should do this and, if scientists doing their research find something, they can exhibit it there.”

The tie-up with UOG will allow the visitors center on Rota to attract tourists from the region, especially from China, according to Sablan.

“China is really growing fast and the traffic there is really bad. People are always on the phone and they do business 16 hours a day, seven days a week. There are over a billion people in China and many of them are getting wealthy. Not in the sense that they’re super rich, but getting wealthy in a sense that they can afford to go on vacation once a year and recharge.”

If the visitors center is built on Rota, it will only enhance the island’s reputation as an ecotourism destination, he said.

“Ecotourism is a very important part of this development. That’s why there are more tourists flying to Palau than to the Northern Marianas and they go to Palau for one thing only—nature. They all want to recharge and I want to develop Rota for ecotourism. Rota is a beautiful island. Look, it was hardly touched during World War II. We have on Rota the bird sanctuary. We already have a conservation area to develop into a national park. I want to create a center there where scientists can come and do research on the Marianas Trench.”

Sablan said the visitors center on Rota will not only be huge for the island, but the entire CNMI as well since it would add another tourist attraction to the destination.

“People from China, who are just five hours away, will want to go there. They would like to go to Rota to escape the traffic and the daily grind. They can stay on Rota for a few days and go to the bird sanctuary, go to see the fanihi. Rota has both flora and fauna that are endemic to the island. We want to exhibit that. We need to create something for Rota’s economy. You can’t have ecotourism on Saipan.”

During the past few years, potential locations for a visitor center have been proposed. In April 2013, the Legislature issued a joint resolution recommending the center be built at Marpi, citing ease of both tourist and resident access. Others also urged for the visitor center to be built on or near the Northern Marianas College campus. A $100,000 study also looked at the old lighthouse on Navy Hill as a potential site.