Tourists visit Puntan Dos Amantes, or Two Lovers Point, in Tamuning, Guam on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Last week, the Guam Visitors Bureau presented to the board of directors the latest arrivals numbers for November, which management knew would be impacted by a business deal unfolding in the airline industry.
GVB Marketing Manager Nadine Leon Guerrero gave GVB board members a quick overview of how the island did in its Korean source market, which was impacted by external factors.
“Essentially, we knew that we were (going to) have issues with Korea, with the merger of Korean Air and Asiana (Airlines). So we have a couple of programs to, of course, address that,” Leon Guerrero said during the Dec. 23 board meeting.
GVB developed a collaborative short-term tourism recovery plan to address issues like the lack of seat capacity in South Korea through offering airline incentives and it appears to be gaining traction with airlines.
GVB’s plan was developed collaboratively — considering input from GVB’s board of trustees, management and staff and industry leaders, as well as taking into account the Guam Tourism Recovery Plan, the PKF Plan and the Guam Tourism Tactical Action Plan Survey.
“We do have confirmation from Jin Air, and Jeju. For additional service, Jin began on the 19th of December. In January, Jeju will begin. So with the incentive program we have on hand, we’re looking at $560,002 of an investment. Of course, our goal is to get more flights. And so this is our plan. We’re reaching out to these airlines pretty much on an almost daily basis. So, hopefully, we’re able to attract all of these carriers for the additional service,” Leon Guerrero said.
For the Korea market, Guam’s arrivals numbers from Nov. 1 to Nov. 16 were 13,242 as compared to 32,113 in 2019, the benchmark year for pre-pandemic arrivals. But at roughly 41% of 2019 numbers, GVB recognized the extenuating circumstances that contributed to the low arrival numbers.
“One thing of concern for Korea is the won. During the martial law declaration, it jumped to 1,417 won, and we’re continuing to see it go up, or, I should say, lose value,” Leon Guerrero said.
According to a report from the Korea JoongAng Daily, on Dec. 4, “Korean airline and tourism companies are suffering a sharp drop in shares Wednesday after countries like Britain and Israel issued travel warnings for the country, citing safety concerns deriving from the emergency martial law issued Tuesday night (Dec. 3.).”
The report noted that the martial law declaration by Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was reversed six hours later by the National Assembly.
But there is some good news for Guam, Leon Guerrero said. “The visitors do have a free early check-in, but we do have other programs with Shinhan card, that’s Visa and Mastercard. So, we have some added value campaigns, also with loyalty, duty-free,” Leon Guerrero said.
GVB Chair George Chiu, recognizing that attracting tourists will require funding, said to Leon Guerrero, “I noticed that the budget that you put on there was $5 million, do you need more money?”
She replied, “It would be great if we got more money,” acknowledging that the governor, during their trip to Korea, committed $8 million.
While GVB has identified $5 million, she said they need more.
In response, Chiu said, “Let’s make it a point on the board to work with the administration to find (an) additional $3 million, because the governor herself personally committed to $8 million when she was in Korea, so we need to find three more million dollars. I think it’s very important that we do come up with additional funding. I know it’s a little bit late in the year – it’s today, the last meeting of 2024 – but let’s rework the budget when you have time, to see how…we’ll find you the money.”
While he didn’t have an answer for where the money would come from, he stressed it needed to happen.
“But I tell you right now, we need to. We need to commit that money, and we need to get additional seats, because the difference between Korea and Japan is very obvious. If you have the seats, the body will fill it. It’s opposite of Japan. So let’s commit at least to get the $3 million more, to get $8 million and get that seat up,” Chiu said.
GVB management predicted 40,000 seats, but with an additional $3 million in funding, Chiu wondered if 10,000 more seats could be acquired.
“We can ask,” said Leon Guerrero.
Other board members were realistic in estimating that seats may only go up by a couple of thousand given the time frame.
Chiu noted while there is time, there isn’t a lot of it, so coming up with the money needs to happen now.
