HAGATNA, Guam (7 Oct 2001) -- With the island's economic future at stake, the government of Guam is spending about $1.2 million and sending more than a dozen business and government leaders on a trip to Japan. Their mission: To woo Japanese tourists amid a global fear of air travel. Guam Visitors Bureau General Manager James Nelson said the Guam delegation will depart Oct. 8 and will split into two teams. Their trip ends Oct. 13. Gov. Carl Gutierrez will lead a delegation that will conduct promotional pitches in the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, Okayama and Fukuoka, Nelson said. Gutierrez said he will make a strong pitch that Guam is a safe destination. ''(Guam) is probably the best place they can go to right now that is America,'' Gutierrez said. Sen. Felix Camacho, chairman of the Guam Legislature's tourism and economic development committee, is in charge of the team assigned to Osaka, Niigata, Sendai and Sapporo cities. Guam's tourist arrival numbers have dropped sharply since terrorists hijacked commercial jets and crashed them into financial and government landmarks in New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11. Nelson said the budget for the promotional trip includes about $600,000 for production and publication of advertisements that will be printed in three national and five regional newspapers in Japan for two days. He said the ads will show photos of various tourist attractions on Guam. The ads will include the Japanese translation of ''beautiful, wonderful Guam.'' The ads also will convey that, after just three flight hours, Japanese tourists can be carefree and have endless fun on Guam, Nelson said. Another message that will appear in the advertisements states, in Japanese: ''Guam -- the first choice for overseas travel.'' | | The members of the delegation will conduct seminars for tour agents, hold press conferences and meet with mayors or governors at the cities or prefectures that will be visited. Japanese tourists are the focus of Guam's tourism recovery efforts because they make up more than 80 percent of total visitor traffic to Guam. About one million Japanese tourists visit Guam every year. ''Japanese tourists are the central element of Guam's economy,'' according to a recent Bank of Hawai'i economic report. Times are tough for the industry but, Nelson added that ''there's light at the end of the tunnel.'' Cancellations for travel to Guam are decreasing, he said. ''Be patient, things will definitely get better sooner rather than later,'' Nelson said. Guam's $1.2 million promotional budget will be shaved off the visitors bureau's fiscal 2002 budget, Nelson said. In Hawai'i, a group of business leaders appointed by Gov. Ben Cayetano has come up with a $20 million tourist promotion plan to help in the state's economic recovery in the wake of terrorist attacks, according to The Associated Press. Executives Walter Dods of First Hawaiian Bank and Tony Vericella of the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau were quoted in the wire report as saying that the state government would match $5 million put up by visitor organizations and attractions and another $5 million from businesses and visitor destination organizations. |
