GVB Board Chair Milton Morinaga Nathan Pangilinan Denight GVB CEO President at the Legislature
Guam welcomed 122,749 visitors in June 2017, a 3.7 percent increase when compared to the previous year. June 2017 thus becomes the best June in Guam’s tourism history.
Daily arrivals showed increases in visitor arrivals in the days leading up to big music events that included the 4th annual Guam Live International Music Festival and 5th annual Electric Island Festival.
"Our people, our island hospitality and Håfa Adai spirit are all worth highlighting as we celebrate another record-breaking month,” said Lieutenant. Governor Ray Tenorio. “Let’s continue to bring out the best that our island has to offer to make our home a better place to live, work and visit for everyone.”
Guam’s second top visitor market of Korea recorded a 19.4 percent increase, while Hong Kong noted a 105.5 percent increase over the previous year.
“As many successes that are worth mentioning, it’s also important to address our challenges in the tourism industry for the second part of 2017,” said GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight. “With the suspension of flights from HK Express and Eva Air this past month, we have lost seats to bring in more visitors from those markets. It brings into focus for the need to continue growing and diversifying our markets in the event we face challenges in seating capacity. We also must continue to invest in our aging infrastructure and aim to accomplish the goals in the Tourism 2020 strategic plan.”
Summary of arrivals
The Japan market still faces a decline in seating capacity since airline carriers such as Delta and Korean Air pulled out of gateways within Japan, like Osaka and Nagoya. These contributed to the 7.7 percent decrease. Almost 1.4 million seats between Japan and Guam were available in 2012, but this number has decreased to less than 1 million in 2016. Arrivals numbers from Taiwan and Hong Kong are expected to decrease with the suspension of flights from HK Express and Eva Air in June.
To seek out more airlines and grow and diversify Guam’s visitor markets further, GVB has requested an increase in funding from the Guam Legislature to tackle these challenges head-on.
Looking at the bigger picture, total Fiscal Year-to-Date arrivals also increased by 5 percent and total Calendar Year-to-Date arrivals rose by 4.2 percent.
Korea arrivals increased by 19.4 percent. Other visitor markets also recorded some growth as well. Arrivals from Hong Kong increased by 105.5 percent, while the Russian Federation grew by 22.3 percent. Additionally, more markets that showed increased arrivals include Thailand by 54.5 percent, Canada by 14.8 percent, Hawaii by 17.6 percent, U.S. mainland by 3.5 percent, CNMI by 10.7 percent and Australia by 16.8 percent.