To turn around drop in visitor number, tourism leaders should focus on prime issues

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Guam’s tourism sector and its outlook appear quite dim in the short term. The Guam Visitors Bureau shows this year arrivals would slip down almost 8 percent. Arrivals in March are down 14 percent for Japan, and growth from South Korea is a not enough, just 2 percent, and no longer in double digits like it used to.

 
The countries like Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan all experienced double-digit decreases in the first few months of this fiscal year. Arrivals of South Koreans were not enough to discontinue the decrease on the whole.

 
In the first half of this fiscal year, roughly 771,990 tourist arrivals were seen with a 3.6 percent drop for the island’s visitor industry.

 
The Guam Visitors Bureau showed the numbers in a legislative hearing on Tuesday, foreshadow tourism which is the main economic engine of Guam and will remain on a downhill path for a while.

 
GVB has been showcasing the jitters caused by North Korea’s rhetoric to target its missiles toward Guam as one of the main causes for the drop in arrivals of visitors. However, that was seven months back. That no longer should be GVB’s prime cause why visitor arrival keeps on declining.

 
GVB President Nate Denight explained in the legislative hearing that the bureau is all set to overturn the negative illustration caused by North Korea’s threats.

 
“Were’ trying to flip … the bad PR,” Denight said.

 
Also, the visitors’ bureau emphasized the decrease in airline seats as one of the main causes for the dampened visitor arrivals. The cancellation or reduction of United Airlines flights or seat capacity and the complete pullout by Delta Air Lines from the Guam market have caused Guam to lose about 200,000 flight seats in a year.

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