Second best July achieved; work continues to improve tourism industry

“We must keep our tourism industry healthy so our economy can thrive. This means working together to bring visitors to our beautiful island, improving upon our destination, and promoting our Håfa Adai spirit to the world. We commend our men and women in the tourism and hospitality industry for continuing to make Guam a better place to live, work and visit.”

— Governor Eddie Baza Calvo

 

Tourism industry continues to grow

More than 131,000 people visited Guam’s shores in July 2018 – ranking it second in July arrivals for our island.

“This is a record-breaking July achieved in spite of things that are outside of our control.  It speaks to the efforts the hard working men and women at GVB for always finding innovative ways to improve our island's tourism,” said Lt. Governor Ray Tenorio.

Top 5 July Arrivals:

2017 – 132,952

2018 – 131,389

1997 – 130,929

1995 – 127,082

2016 – 122,996

Fiscal Year-to-date arrivals are down 2.9%, while Calendar Year-to-date arrivals are 2.5% less when compared to the previous year.

Tropical storm Maria did affect visitor arrivals as canceled flights were noted during the 4th of July weekend.

Japan arrivals decreased by 22.5%, while arrivals from Korea grew by 15.3%. Other markets that also showed increases include the U.S. mainland & Hawaii by 13.2%, Taiwan by 21.8% and the Philippines by 29.7%.

What’s ahead

“GVB and its tourism partners continue to work hard to increase seating availability to the island. At the same time, we are doing our best to improve the quality of the destination, while showing how tourism works for the community,” said GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight.

Summer charters to Guam from Japan are active, with 191 flights providing 33,667 more seats from July through September. Guam has 471 charters in total for Calendar Year 2018, which has more than doubled from last year.

Recovery efforts to Guam’s air seat capacity continue as GVB and the Guam International Airport Authority (GIAA) work to offer air service initiatives for existing airlines and potential ones to increase seating availability or provide new routes to Guam.

So far, the initiatives have reached successful results as demand in the Japan market is growing. Jeju Air’s flight service between Osaka and Guam launched on July 21, providing daily flights on a Boeing 737-800. Japan Airlines also is extending its second daily flights from Narita to Guam through March 2019.

For the month of August, United Airlines will be adding 20 more flights between Tokyo and Guam. Also, in response to growing travel demand to Guam, United will be adding four more flights a week between Guam and Nagoya beginning December 2, 2018, and reintroducing its Boeing 777-200 aircraft on two of three daily flights from Tokyo to Guam starting October 28, 2018. 

While Japan arrival numbers have been down, Guam should be able to see the gap start to close in the fall months from all the efforts to increase seating capacity.

A glance at visitor profiles

GVB is also monitoring the visitor profile of each source market. The average expenditures (per person) and length of stay for Fiscal Year to date as of June 2018 are below:

 

Expenditures (per person)

Japan

Prepaid: $940.72

On-island: $532.50

Length of stay: 3.27 days

 

Korea

Prepaid: $700.34

On-island: $230.13

Length of stay: 6.84 days

 

Taiwan

Prepaid: $1,359.57

On-island: $925.97

Length of stay: 4.47 days

 

Hong Kong

Prepaid: $1,107.10

On-island: $930.68

Length of stay: 3.98 days

 

Philippines

Prepaid: $574.16

On-island: $554.89

Length of stay: 5.69 days

 

Tracking visitor profiles helps the tourism industry understand the habits of Guam’s source markets.

“It’s not just about the volume produced in the tourism industry, but its yield as well that we are monitoring. Visitor profiles not only help us track how visitors spend, it also helps understand their motivations to travel to Guam and how we can fine-tune our marketing strategies in each source market,” added Denight.

 

Media Contact: JOSH TYQUIENGCO - Public Information Officer