by Krystal Paco

Guam - With crime on the rise on island, the Guam Visitors Bureau is looking to enforce stronger safety measures in the tourism capitol. It's not just the sea, surf, sand, and shopping that draw thousands of visitors to the island every year - it's safety, too.

"When we do market Guam, it's primarily a leisure destination but one of the things that we tout is its safety," according to GVB general manager Karl Pangelinan. He explained that GVB is updating older programs as well as rolling out new ones to keep tourists and locals alike safe in our islands tourism capitol.

"The first part of our safety plan will include the CCTV - the camera system that's been long overdue. Phase I proposals are due on December 30, and we're excited to look at some proposals with that. Phase I includes the replacement and the refurbishment of the existing camera system that's in place. It's really just changing out the hardware in the poles that already have cameras that just need to change out the camera system but more importantly the DVR system at the Frankie Smith Precinct needs to be changed out."

While cameras get upgraded, so will visitor relations thanks to a new visitor relations officer program. "It's kind of a quasi-park ranger, if you will," he said. "Some of them would have a GVB polo on and help our visitors out with directional information just general information but also a compliance and a monitoring component when it comes to some of the regulations like our friends up at DPW or GPD are having tough times enforcing so we envision some sort of MOA between these entities where they can issue citations possibly for handbilling issue citations with regard to improper signage or the banner problem up and down Tumon."

This is on top of the $25,000 the GVB recently approved to support Guam Crimestoppers, specific to crimes to our visitors and crimes in Tumon.