Chinese tourists

Chinese tourists had originally been able to stay in the CNMI for up to 45 days.

However, Governor Ralph Torres made a call to cut their stay to address the issues of 'birth tourism' and overstaying.

US Customs and Border Protection have made the changes, which will come into effect on Thursday.

'Birth tourism' is used to describe the practice of travelling to another country for the purpose of giving birth to obtain citizenship.

PTI China’s Beijing based Tourism Manager Vivienne Song organised an itinerary for the film crew that has included Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Samoa, supported by the National Tourism Organisations in each country.

Travelling with the film crew is Arthur Chance, the famous world traveller TV host with more than one million followers on China’s social media platform Weibo (China’s equivalent to Twitter).

The Costa Atlantica left Guangzhou Province, China, on November 27, 2016. It was on a ‘47 Half World Cruise Tour’, with its first PNG port of entry being Alotau for a 14-hour stopover on January 1, 2017.

Tour operator Egwalau Tours and Events’ major concern was that the ship arrived on Milne Bay shores on a public holiday.

Other concerns were: