HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Visitor arrivals to Guam already are nearly double what the island saw in fiscal 2022, based on information shared by the Guam Visitors Bureau.
Though arrivals were less than stellar in the post-typhoon month of June, fiscal 2023 has so far seen 426,000 visitors touch down, GVB revealed Thursday during a Taiwan market update. The entirety of fiscal 2022, the last full year of the COVID-19 public health emergency for Guam, saw just 216,000 visitors.
This fiscal year saw the return of about a quarter of the air traffic Guam saw during the historic fiscal 2019, when 1.63 million visitors came to the island, Post files show.
The final quarter of 2023 isn’t projected to perform quite as well, in the wake of Typhoon Mawar. The island is expected to top out at 515,000 tourists through September, fewer than the 670,000 projected before the typhoon. Tourism officials expect flights could get back on track as early as October.
June saw Korean visitors, who have booked the most flights through the pandemic years, drop to just 1,515, about 11% of what they were last year. Arrival numbers from Japan were better this June than last, but flights from the cautious Japanese tourism market have been stubbornly low; just 2,641 Japanese visitors came in June.
Taiwanese visitor numbers were 30 times higher this June than they were last year, when just 27 visitors from Taiwan arrived due to a lack of direct flights.
The tourism agency has shifted largely toward marketing Guam as good to go for any source market customers who have the travel itch.
GVB Taiwan marketing manager Gabbie Franquez said Thursday that agency officials attended a general meeting for the Association of National Tourism Office Representatives in Taiwan to get the word out.
“Guam was given the chance to share our recovery efforts after Typhoon Mawar and just share the experience and what we’re doing to keep on top of mind, but also to engage in crisis communication and ensure that our travelers know that Guam is recovering and safe,” she said.
Taiwan arrivals up
Visitor numbers from Taiwan, touted as the highest-spending of Guam’s source markets, are much better than last year’s. GVB has turned to chartering flights from the island nation, with no major airlines offering regular, direct flights.
Taiwan’s three major airlines aren’t ready to resume direct flights between Guam and Taipei due to fleet and manpower shortages, Franquez said.
There have been 3,895 Taiwanese visitors to Guam so far this fiscal year, up from just 200 at the same time in fiscal 2022.
That figure is far lower than the 20,219 visitors who came in fiscal 2019.
Tourism Assistance Program
Most of the $2 million in grant funds meant to help tourism-related businesses get back open in time for a July 16 travel surge have been spent.
A full $1.9 million was allocated to the Tourism Assistance Program, Franquez said, which provided up to $25,000 to businesses while funding lasted.
Tourists pose for a photo June 29 in front of the GUAM sign at the Plaza de España in Hagåtña.
