GUAM continues to be open to business and leisure travelers, and is hoping for an increase in arrivals from the Philippines.
In a webinar on Wednesday, Philip Gejon, sales manager for the Guam Visitors Bureau-Philippines, said, “Guam hasn’t closed its doors [throughout the Covid-19 pandemic]. It remains an open tourism destination.” Visitors, however, have to take the Covid-19 test upon arrival and quarantine for 14 days in a government facility. The test and the quarantine will be paid for by the Guam government.
Only holders of current US visas may enter Guam, which Gejon admits is an obstacle in attracting more tourists from the Philippines, and especially since the United States Embassy in Manila has temporarily stopped processing visa applications. “What we can do is to promote Guam as a destination to those clients who have actual US visas already. In fact, we have been working with some travel agencies here in the Philippines [and] working on different groups going to Guam who are already US visa holders. So it will be a challenge [to visit Guam] if it’s your first time to apply for a US visa.”
For years, GVB has been trying to work with the US Embassy in Manila for a “Guam-only” visa to encourage more Filipinos to visit Guam. Due to the challenging nature of securing a US visa, however, most Filipinos, especially those who don’t have relatives on Guam, opt to go to the US mainland for tourism purposes.
According to data from GVB’s web site, Guam received only 3,297 visitors from the Philippines from January to December 2020, likely due to Manila’s travel restrictions and community lockdowns, an 84.1-percent drop from the 2019 visitors.
In 2019, arrivals from the Philippines grew by 8.6 percent to 20,729, accounting for just 1.24 percent of the total foreign arrivals in Guam. The Philippines ranks sixth in terms of top visitor markets for Guam, coming after Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and the US/Hawaii.
United Airlines flies three times weekly between Hagatña, the capital of Guam, and Manila, offering a round-trip, economy airfare of $148 per person until the end of the year.
Tourism is Guam’s primary source of revenue for its economy, contributing $1.4 billion and 18,000 jobs. It has been marketing itself as a “cheap and close” destination for shopping, beaches, culture and history, and an active nightlife, to its Asian neighbors.
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