JUDY Flores told her radio talk show host that fewer tourists are coming to Guam as per her Gef Pago “experience” on Feb. 7 (Newstalk K-57). This is not really a surprise because visitor arrival stats revealed the same. But what folks still haven’t figured out is why tourists come to Guam.
According to the father of tourism, Bert Unpingco, who has visited numerous destinations worldwide and has done a lot for Guam’s visitor industry over the years, “We are not American enough.” (He has said so in numerous occasions on the same radio station.) That is the age-old question that we still haven’t quite resolved or “fixated” in the Guam’s mind-eye.
Are tourists coming to Guam because it is Guam comma U.S.A., or are tourists coming to Guam because of the sun, surf, sea, and sand even if it is just Guam period? I think it is a measure of both but it is difficult to quantify because tourists tend to go anywhere where there is a good product to purchase. I would think if tourists are arriving in fewer numbers (not necessarily our fault every time) and spending less, we need to do one or both of two things.
First, do as the GVB Chair Perez is aspiring which is to calibrate the Guam product to a higher-end visitor market and/or second, “really go native.” To mean people would want to come for the same reasons they would want to go to Bali, a Hindu dominated island, in the middle of a Moslem nation. Which means, tourists love coming to Guam despite military armaments and all things American, like steak and hot dogs, to pique their curiosity on all things Guam native but not glorified out of bias by elected officials who have conflicts of interests with their backers who tend to profit disproportionately from tourist activities.
Guam is still like a rudderless small ship being tossed and turned by not only macro forces that are beyond our control (such as the Japanese economy) but also by local forces that do not know who they are (hence no movement on political status). When the money that flows in start to slow, they will look for scapegoats and make excuses as there is no long-term plan or desire to do good for the people of Guam.

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao