Bart Jackson, former general manager of Pacific Islands Club, spoke about tourism at the Rotary Club of Guam luncheon held Thursday at the Marriott Resort & Spa.
The industry, which suffered a downturn in visitor arrivals — due particularly to the triple disasters in Japan — will slightly improve this summer.
Jackson spoke about the expected arrivals that would have happened in March if it weren’t for the disasters.
“March was going to be a record-setting month,” said Jackson. “This was the best March that would have been in bookings that I’ve seen in the last 20 years.”
However, because of Japan’s situation, and many other countries’ sensitivity and respect towards Japan, the market saw a decline in arrivals.
Despite the disasters, Jackson did say that this summer would pick up for the Japanese market.
He reported that many young people have been returning, in addition to the families that have already been arriving.
“Even as the summer gets better, the groups probably won’t be back until next year,” warned Jackson. “I fully expect that by the beginning of next year, Japan will be on track. We are seeing bookings for next year … we are seeing a lot of interest.”
Jackson also spoke about the Korean market and said the decline in arrivals was due to the assumption that Japan’s radioactivity was coming to Guam.
“We saw the same kind of falloff from Korea as we did in Japan for the first several months,” he said.
But, on an optimistic note for the summer and into fall this year, Jackson said that as the island gets through the months of June, July and August, “Korea will be fine and back on track.”
Jackson also touched on the impending military buildup and spoke about his confidence in its likeliness to happen, though not as quickly as expected.
He predicted that lower-end hotels would benefit from the buildup due to long-stay military guests.
“I’m still optimistic about that end of the business and overall tourism as we move forward in some fashion,” said Jackson.
