CONCERNS have been raised about plans by the Guam Visitors Bureau to raise the number of overseas arrivals to two million by 2020.
The 6th Regional Island Sustainability Conference, held in late April and hosted by the University of Guam, threw up fears over whether the infrastructure of the Pacific island would be able to handle such a large additional influx in tourists.
A total of 1.3 million foreigners visited Guam in 2012, the baseline year used for comparisons at the conference. About 71 per cent, or 929,229 arrivals, came from Japan, and South Korea accounted for 14 per cent with 182,829 arrivals.
Governor Eddie Calvo’s Tourism 2020 plan, unveiled in 2014, wants to see 1.1 million Japanese arrivals in 2020 as well as 350,000 visitors from South Korea and a further 70,000 from Taiwan.
The biggest increase will be from China, however. In 2012, a mere 8,939 Chinese visited Guam. In 2020, if a visa waiver programme can be agreed on, that figure is expected to reach 350,000.
The Tourism 2020 plan also calls for the addition of high-end hotel rooms, incentivised reinvestment in the hotel sector, more emphasis on MICE opportunities, extending the average length of visitors’ stays and extending tourism beyond the traditional strip of hotels, restaurants and attractions in Tumon.
