HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Five airlines so far have applied for a chance at a $100-per-seat subsidy under the Guam Visitors Bureau’s restarted airline incentives program that has a budget of $1.7 million for April.
This was among key topics at Tuesday’s meeting of GVB’s Air Services Development Committee.
Guam is starting to see “light at the end of the tunnel,” GVB board Chair Milton Morinaga said at the meeting.
The monthly air seat capacity is expected to increase from about 37,000 this month to more than 107,000 in June, as more international travel restrictions are being lifted in Guam’s major tourism markets of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.
If these numbers are sustained, Guam could end up with 836,462 air seats for fiscal 2022, tourism officials said.
That’s a 58% increase from the 530,000 in 2021, but only a fraction of the 2.25 million air seats before the pandemic in 2019.
Air Busan, Jin Air, t’way, Philippine Airlines and Korean Air have applied for the program, GVB said, adding that more airlines could apply.
If these five airlines are the only ones that avail themselves of the incentive program, GVB anticipates spending about $1 million of the $1.7 million budget.
The remaining amount may have to be reallocated to the GVB program that provides free Covid-19 PCR testing to eligible tourists before they return to their home countries.
The free testing means $175 savings for tourists visiting Guam, where the full Covid-19 vaccination rate is now 96%.
At the committee meeting, Morinaga and other members received updates from different source markets.
From the Korean market, for example, GVB anticipates more than 230,000 visitors this year.
The Omicron surge starting in January slashed air seats to Guam, but GVB President Carl Gutierrez and other officials are in Korea now to try to persuade airlines to increase their seat numbers to Guam.
Last week’s projection was about 250,000. GVB officials on Tuesday said these projections change quite frequently.
Covid-19 travel restrictions hit Guam’s tourism industry hard, especially in fiscal 2021, with staggeringly low visitor arrivals of 61,607, compared to the record-breaking 1.63 million prior to the pandemic in 2019.
There were 45,816 tourist arrivals to Guam from Oct. 1, 2021, to March 20, 2022. GVB earlier said fiscal year 2022 arrivals could be anywhere between 80,000 and 120,000.
Besides getting more air seats, GVB is trying to spur attractions and activities for both tourists and residents.
GVB announced Tuesday that the Friday afternoon food truck festival at Ypao Beach, called Fandanña Friday, is extended throughout April.
A couple are seen walking Tuesday in front of the Häagen-Dazs shop on Pale San Vitores Road, in the once-bustling tourist district of Tumon.
