As senators grilled a panel of GVB officials for more than three hours on Wednesday afternoon, GVB President and CEO Regine Biscoe Lee urged lawmakers to fund $11.1 million in airline incentives, arguing it will significantly benefit the economy. 

“Senators, incentives are not handouts. They are performance based agreements tied to seat capacity, tied to load factor and route duration,” said Biscoe Lee. 

She says the temporary incentives are expected to bring in an additional 329,000 annual arrivals, an increase in economic impact at $640 million, 6,000 jobs, and $166 million in taxes. 

With neighboring destinations all fighting for the same limited aircraft, she says “Guam must be competitive now.”

“I think I just want to start off by mentioning the next 18 months are very critical to us. Globally, airlines are facing a shortage of aircrafts due to manufacturing delays, extended maintenance and supply challenges,” said Lee. 

GVB has already made internal budget cuts and layoffs, revealing they let go of some destination maintenance workers to be able to invest in incentives this fiscal year. 

“Because of those efforts, Guam’s monthly seat capacity out of Korea jumped from 39,000 in June of this year, to over 60,000 this month in August. So with incentives, we grew seat capacity to over 50 percent in just two months,” she added.  

But Senator Chris Barnett questions whether the $11 million would be better spent to invest in local businesses for destination maintenance and upgrades. 

“It kind of troubles me that we’re laying off maintenance staff but making the ask to invest in these incentives when there’s definitely a lot of work that needs to be done for our island as a destination,” said Sen. Barnett.  

“I wholeheartedly agree with you and I believe we can do more on all fronts. I'm a firm believer that we can walk and chew gum at the same time, but we’re not going to be able to wow them with our marketing and our beautiful island if we’re not able to get them here,” added Lee. 

This comes as lawmakers race against the clock to pass a budget bill to fund GovGuam by the next ten days, while contending with tax cuts for businesses that could impact funding for other priorities. 

The president argues that with more visitors, they can directly generate hotel occupancy tax, gross receipt tax and income tax revenues for Guam. 

“Investing in tourism means that we'll have a return on that investment to fund our very important priorities of education, safety, health, and so many others that you've been hearing about over the last few weeks,” added Lee. 

She adds without these airline incentives, airlines will reduce or cancel their routes to opt for better funded destinations. 

“And here’s the reality, if we don’t invest now, other destinations will. They take their planes, they will take their visitors and they will take their cash to spend it somewhere else,” said Lee. 

Biscoe Lee warns senators that no matter how good marketing is or how beautiful Guam is, tourism growth will stall, without the air seat capacity to bring visitors here.