By Joe Q. Public
Guam is in serious trouble! It is sad to have to open a letter this way but people need to wake up and see what is happening right in front of them. As we enter the final stretch of the political season and we have seen months and months of road side signs making empty promises. We see the never-ending roulette of pointless slogans like “the voice of people” or “common sense government” that really become eye soars we are forced to look at every day.
The one thing that is missing though is no one is talking about our tourism market and the abysmal (and rapidly declining), numbers we are seeing in Guam. This seems to be a complete non-issue to everyone, and that is a critical mistake. I have lived in Guam almost my whole life and have come to know one thing, when tourism is good then so is everything else. Unlike Federal Money being pumped into the local economy through the buildup, which our esteemed law makers love to take credit for, the money from tourism actually trickles down through the island.
Full hotels mean full staffing in hotels, full restaurants mean full staffing, it means wholesalers are busy, tour companies are busy, bus drivers and so on. Then those same people are spending their money in local businesses, buying cars, shopping, well you get it!
Unlike GRT being paid by Federal Contractors which goes straight to the Government and then all the Politicians celebrate and take credit for things that have nothing to do with them at all.
How did an island that was once dedicated to tourism and the Hafa Adai spirit just stop caring about our main economic driver??
So how did we come to this place? My answer is that our elected officials simply do not care, that is the only logical conclusion. As long as they are getting paid that is all that matters right?
This morning I heard a commercial on the radio where our sole Congressman is actually campaigning on the fact tourism is bad and he needs to stay in Washington to keep getting Federal Money. Is that a joke? If so, it certainly is not a funny one, at least in my opinion.
I have an idea, why don’t we confront the problem at hand and ask ourselves why is tourism so bad and why is our former Governor being rewarded with a pay raise for it?
The fact is Guam is failing miserably at tourism recovery and is way behind the rest of the world, COVID is over just no one told the people in charge here. Take Hawaii our sister on the other side of the sea, let’s take a look at their tourism numbers, these are easily accessible on this website.
In July Hawaii welcomed 925, 935 visitors, yes you read that correctly nearly 1M people in one single month. Guam will not reach 1M in 2024, and really not even close. These tourists represented $2.07 Billion in spending which is nearly double our GovGuam budget for an entire year, it is a 2.6% growth from prior year and a whopping 93.0% of pre-pandemic numbers.
Now let’s look at Guam, in July we welcomed 59,931 visitors that is down 56.2% from 2019. Japan arrivals were 15,160, down 68.5% from 2019 and Korea is down 56% with just 29,845 arrivals. How is possible with everywhere in the world rebounding and us moving backwards??
Again, the only logical explanation is that no one cares! Take a stroll through Tumon on any day or night of the week and you will find empty streets, empty stores, empty restaurants all there to serve non-existent tourists. Are the numbers that are being reported by GVB even real? From a person who is in Tumon a lot I would seriously question them.
Why is GVB not aggressively marketing Guam like they did in 2019 and pre-pandemic, what about our award-winning Shop Guam App? Where is the GVB Board in all of this? Why are emergency meetings not being called to address this issue? Oh yeah, I forgot, Carl loves the play politics with people’s livelihood, and if he is not eating first, then no one eats or better yet we all starve.
Jeju Air stopped flying to Guam for three weeks in June, this is our main carrier from Korea and it did not even make the news. They will reduce flights this month to only one a day, United has announced it will close its Nagoya service and Osaka is surely not far behind.
Guam is in serious trouble and people need to wake up and see what is happening right in front of them. We will be like Saipan where our only hope of staying afloat is Federal money, look what has happened to them? Vacant hotels, empty store fronts, empty streets, as a matter of fact we may be Saipan already??
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Joe Q. Public is in the hotel and restaurant industry and would rather not disclose his identity for fear a target will be on his back for criticizing the government
4 Comments
Sadong Tasi Resident
10/02/2024 at 6:30 AM
What the author leaves out is most of Hawaii’s tourists were Americans, myself included.
1. Guam is just as expensive as Hawaii with less to do.
2. Japan’s GPD shrunk by 0.5% in 2024; they don’t have money.
3. Interest rates are elevated so credit is tight.
4. Korea’s economy shrunk by 2.6% in 2024; they don’t have money.
Tourists getting mugged, shot and stabbed by meth heads in Tumon on a quarterly basis doesn’t help either.
As for the jobs related to Tourism; they are mostly low quality and low paying – those people would still need government assistance.
Long story short, Guam is pricing itself out of the market – so much so that even it’s residents are leaving – the population has shrunk 3.5% despite the military uptick.
Of those who left, most have been middle class (myself included); due to high rents and uncompetitive wages – this means less people who could / can afford to avail the amenities the author speaks
My rent is 1/4 what is was on Guam and my salary is double.
Fix your house before inviting guests over – that’s my advice.
Ti' Bisnesmu
10/03/2024 at 3:02 PM
Amen! I agree totally! I left because of the same reason and I was born and raised on Guam!
Uh Oh
10/04/2024 at 11:51 AM
Don’t worry GVB’s 4 new cars, new generator, new side by side, new tractor and new solar lights will get the tourists back, can they send money to the hospital
Leah Teddy
10/16/2024 at 1:20 PM
GUAM IS A PARADISE and thrives on tourism, BUT it is not an attractive island. Compared even to Saipan – that island’s beautification efforts are 1000% better.
Nothing attractive about areas on Guam no well manicured parks, floral gardens, well-marked places to visit. More funds should be allocated to GVB and Guam Parks and Recs for these annual projects as well as grounds folks (laborers and equipment for upkeep).
Why can’t Guam have a tropical floral park with different kinds of flowers where tourists can walk amongst colorful blossoms and take photos or Federico palm plants carefully planted in a three acre space to walk through by visitors and cared by the Department of Agriculture personnel.
We have all these government departments but the directors have no vision outside of sitting inside their air conditioned offices.
GUAM IS PARADISE, LETS MAKE IT ONE!