Gutierrez and tourism partners make push for Japanese tourists to visit this summer

We can recover all we want, but if travelers don’t come to stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, and shop in our stores, we will be in for one heck of a local recession. On the home front, Tumon, the members of the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association, and the members of the Guam Chamber of Commerce are cleaning up, opening business, and slowly recalling employees.

Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio told Kandit in an interview Thursday that Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has tasked him with cleaning up the island. The mutual benefit is for the environment we live in, and to prepare to welcome tourists back to the island.

In April, more than 55,000 tourists visited the island, which was about 45 percent the pre-pandemic level for the same month in 2019. May numbers dipped to only 40,000, with flights canceled the last week of the month because of Typhoon Mawar.

Guam Visitors Bureau projects only 15,000 tourists will come this month, with a slow rise to pre-typhoon levels some time after September.

GVB CEO former Gov. Carl Gutierrez is hitting the ground running, touring several of Guam’s tourism companies in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukyoka, Japan through the Father’s Day weekend to market Guam.

As of today, June 17, “GVB members participating included Dusit Thani Guam, Dusit Beach Resort, Bayview Guam, DFS, Hyatt Regency, Spa Ayualam, Crowne Plaza, and Risonare Guam,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “The entire delegation with additional members will then go to Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka for regional seminars in these cities in collaboration with United Airlines from June 19-23.”

The marketing push is presented by GVB and Japan Airlines as the GoGo Guam Summer Fiesta Campaign.