HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Another step has been taken on the path to recovering the island’s tourism economy, as Japan announced it would be easing Covid-19 travel restrictions in early September.
Japan has one of the most stringent border control measures in place, but, in an online interview with reporters on Wednesday, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to ease border controls Sept. 7, The Washington Post reported.
The news was welcomed by Guam Visitors Bureau President and CEO Carl Gutierrez, who said it was a “long time coming.”
“We’re excited to hear this news. It’s a long time coming and will greatly help with the Japan market recovery while incentivizing our legacy carriers like Japan Airlines and United to augment their existing coverage between Japan and Guam,” Gutierrez said.
The ease in border controls means Japanese tourists will have an easier time traveling in and out of the country.
“Our island has been doing good in keeping our Covid numbers down, so we feel both Japan and Guam are ready for this change in Japan’s testing requirements. We also hope they lift their visa requirements,” Gutierrez said.
Currently, visitors to Japan must have a negative PCR test result within 72 hours of departure for all incoming passengers. The ease in controls would allow for travelers who have received at least one booster vaccine to waive the preentry test.
“We plan to gradually ease border controls to allow entry procedures to be as smooth as those of other Group of Seven countries,” Kishida told media, referring to the group of seven major industrial nations, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Russia was suspended from the Group of Eight in March 2014.
Kishida addressed reporters from his official residence, where he has been on duty while isolating after testing positive Sunday for Covid-19.
The Japanese government also plans on allowing more travelers entry to the country by raising the cap of 20,000 incoming passengers to 50,000 as early as September, The Washington Post reported.
“Our fight against the virus is not easy, but we should not be too afraid and, instead, take into consideration the characteristics of the omicron variant,” Kishida told The Washington Post. “We will speed up our responses while balancing the infection measures and social and economic activities as much as possible.”
A preliminary Guam visitor arrival report for July 2022, released by GVB, showed the month ended with 41,091 visitors to the island, above projected forecasts.
The report showed source markets slowly returning to Guam, with 5% of arrivals being Japanese tourists.
Tourists pose with the Guam sign while visiting the Plaza de España in Hagåtña on May 12, 2022.
