Guam's tourism recovery is hindered by 'poor' market performance and product integrity.

Japan, formerly our top market, has experienced a 70% decrease in arrivals, while South Korea, the current top market, remains 50% below pre-pandemic levels.

That's according to Guam Visitors Bureau Recovery Committee Chair Mark Baldyga who recently gave a progress report to the board.

“Japan is still down 30 percent worldwide in outbound travel. Guam is down 70 percent. Our market share was 3.4%. Now it’s 1.4%. Worst performing destination on the planet,” said Baldyga.

During the update, he revealed the Governor’s November trip to South Korea aimed at boosting visitor arrivals resulted in a misunderstanding with top airline executives regarding landing fee reductions.

“We heard back from the Korean carriers that they were promised a 50% reduction in landing fees in those meetings. Not sure what they were or weren’t. I’ve got conflicting reports,” said Baldyga. “But there was some confusion that came out of that first trip. And some frustration on behalf of the airlines who didn’t get the discounts they thought they would. So that had a negative result.”

GVB is working with the Guam International Airport Authority to figure out what can be done with the landing fee issue.

Meantime, another hiccup with United Airlines' new direct route connecting Taipei and Guam.

“The Taipei deal was signed. Without getting into a whole bunch of dirty details, the bottom line is that the deal terms were not exactly as we thought they would be. The incentives that have been done to date are a bit all over the place,” added Baldyga.

It's why GVB is employing an airline incentive expert to advise on contracts.

“Hopefully we have that person on board soon and they can help us. They are going to visit Japan and Korea to sit down and negotiate, not just scrambling like we’ve been doing,” said Baldyga.

The Recovery Committee Chair said they have to be very careful with airline incentives, calling it ‘a slippery slope.’

Meantime, KUAM reached out to the Governor's Office for comment.