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.

It's part of a recent drive in Samoa to be "China ready" and Tuila'epa has invited people in the private sector to join him on the trip.

Tuila'epa said last year there were 3000 tourists from China and Chinese tourists recently overtook Americans and Germans as the number one spender.

"We want more of them to fill our hotels, to play in our casinos, enjoy riding our wooden buses and eating at our many restaurants."

The Samoa Tourism Authority has appointed a Chinese tourism expert, Marcus Lee, to promote Samoa as a tourist destination among the Chinese.

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).