After a few years of disappointment — typhoons, the Gulf War and an 8.2 earthquake in 1993 — we reached the unattainable 1 million visitor mark for the first time. It was funny but I remember being the only one who predicted that we would finally make it. Back in those days they became gun shy and didn’t make the bold predictions they did in the past.
For the past 14 years we have been wedged in between the just-under-a-million to somewhere just below the 1.3 million visitor mark.
What have we been doing for all of those years and why haven’t we managed to move from where we are. We have actually been doing nothing really different and for most of that time we have not had anything really to move our numbers.
While we have been sitting on our hands the rest of the world is becoming involved because they see a tremendous income potential coming into their countries as a result of setting up for the purpose of having visitors coming to enjoy what they are offering.
Japanese are and have been our number one market since day one. We end up putting the bulk of our marketing and promotion money into Japan and more or less ignore the income potential of other markets.
About 15 years ago, a friend of mine named Calvin tried very hard to tap into the Chinese market. We made some headway but never really got there. About three years ago the investors stopped coming.
Last year Hong Kong enjoyed upwards of 22 million visitors from mainland China spending upwards of $7,060 per person. And, the number looks bigger and better for the year to come.
It’s time to change the way we think about our major market before the world passes us.
FELIX AGUON
Quezon City
and Guam for a while longer
