Tourist arrivals from Russia have grown in the CNMI seeing an 87-percent spike in the current financial year.
The Marianas Visitors Authority says the market has grown from 964 tourists in the October-January quarter in 2006 to 1,806 in the same four-month period in 2007.
The chair of the Hotel Association, Lynn Knight, says the hotels are thrilled.
She says eight of the resorts now have Russian-speaking staff to cater to the market.
