Guam - With tourism as our main industry, the Guam Visitors Bureau reports a spike in visitor arrivals for the month of June. Close to 95,000 tourists made Guam their destination of choice for the month of June - and the forecast is looking even better for the rest of the year.

GVB deputy general manager Nate Denight says the Japan market remains strong, but we should expect an increase in Korean tourists now that Jeju Air has signed on as a signatory airline at the Guam International Airport. "That's going to help make the market more competitive and Korean Air and Japan Air will have to compete a little bit harder so that means prices will go down," he explained. "So we're looking at a good year from Korea as well for next year."

In addition to a growth in Korean visitors, Denight says the Filipino-targeted "Got To Go To Guam" campaign continues. Currently close to 12,000 Filipinos visit the island, many of who travel to Guam for shopping, especially in November right before Christmas.

Taking it up a notch, GVB has plans to promote Guam as a shopping destination, with Denight saying, "We're actually going to be launching another global campaign promoting shopping on Guam in all of our major markets, so that's going to be our stab at doing a global campaign. It's going to be on in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines and Russia.

With the approval of the Russia visa waiver, Denight reports the highest number of Russian arrivals for the month of June at 374 tourists. Despite delays, GVB remains hopeful for the approval of the China visa waiver. "We're still pushing hard the governor and our congresswoman are still working hard in Washington trying to lobby for it. Right now it's with Homeland Security, so hopefully we hear soon especially before the presidential race really starts to heat up - that we hear about whether or not we get it or not but all signs look positive. We're just kind of in a wait-and-see mode," he said.

Here at home, GVB is working to remind Guam residents that the island is a tropical paradise with its "Rediscover Guam" campaign. "We have our brand logo and we wanted to kind of explain to people the symbolism behind the different elements of the logo, because a lot of people didn't know we're talking about the colors of the logo, which symbolize the yellow for the warmth of our sun, the blue of our sky and sea, and green for our natural environment, and brown for our land and to represent the Chamorro culture," he said.

To further promote the unique Guam culture, GVB continues to sign up businesses and organizations to take the Hafa Adai Pledge. Already 300 have signed-up, making over 20,000 employees and growing. To sign up today call 646-5278.