by Michele Catahay, KUAM NewsSunday, August 12, 2007 Subscribe to Michele's newsfeed
While the topic of the military expansion dominates several circles in the community, Guam's tourism industry professionals are hoping the feds and the local government don't lose sight of what truly brings in Guam's bread and butter. According to stats from the Guam Visitors Bureau last year alone the island's tourism industry generated $1.3 billion to the local economy.As well, tourism accounts for approximately 20,000 jobs on island, or 35% of the island's employment. With such a driving force in the local economy, you may then wonder why they weren't on the invite list for Monday's field oversight hearing on the impact of the military buildup. Chairperson of the GVB board of directors Dave Tydingco told KUAM News, "Unfortunately because of timing issues the tourism industry was not able to be apart of the panel to speak on August 13 thanks to Congresswoman [Donna] Christensen, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo and a son of Guam Tony Babauta, who works for the House Insular Committee, they have dedicated a full hour to meet with representatives of the tourism industry to talk about the impact of the military relocation, and things of that nature."According to Tydingco the military expansion although important for Guam, should not overshadow what continues to be the mainstay of the island's economy and during their upcoming meeting with Congresswomen Bordallo and Virgin Islands representative Christensen they plan to focus their discussion on three to four specific issues.Said Tydingco, "Because Guam is going to take on the burden of the relocation of the Marines from Okinawa to Guam, we're going to ask our United States representatives to encourage the Japanese government to go to their people and say that Guam is doing Japan a great big favor and we would like you the Japan Government to visit Guam and help support Guam because we are really taking a tremendous burden from Japan and having the military relocated here. The other things that are important for us beyond the Japan market is China."China is the single largest growth market this year there were 38 million outbound from China going around the world and Guam has a miniscule amount of visitors coming from that area. We want our U.S. representatives to look at encouraging a visa waiver only program for Guam. We want to push forward with an approved destination status with the mainland Chinese government and I know the governor supports that and we need to let our federal officials know that as we grow our economy with the relocation of the military its equally important to sustain our economy by allowing to continue to allow tourism to grow."According to Tydingco, the meeting with Christensen and Bordallo and representatives from the island's tourism industry will be held on Thursday.