Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero announced that former governor Carl Gutierrez will lead the Guam Visitors Bureau as interim president and CEO after current head Pilar Laguana retires at the end of the month. 

"Experts project that the tourism and travel market across the globe can take years to recover and it is likely we will not see the same arrival numbers we did at the start of this decade for a while," the governor said. "Pilar writes the new chapter of her life, GVB must also be guided through a rough period in its history." 

That's why she asked Gutierrez to lead the island's tourism industry for the next 90 days while new leadership is sought.

"As chief architect behind Treasure Island and the lead hand in Vision 2001, Gov. Carl T.C. Gutierrez is no stranger to hard times, whether it was the burst of the Asian economic bubble, the crash of the Korean Airline plane, or the aftermath of supertyphoons, Gov. Gutierrez understands the path from crisis to prosperity," Leon Guerrero said. "As my friend and chief economic advisor, I trust that his plan will be imaginative, innovative and aggressive." 

As the interim head and the governor's chief advisor on economic development, Gutierrez will be tasked to rebuild the tourism economy and diversify. Just as the rest of the world is at a standstill due to COVID-19, the governor emphasized a take away as we move forward.  

"If we have learned anything from this crisis, we learned we cannot depend on one economic sector alone," the governor said. "To grow, we must look within. We must take this opportunity to advance other sectors like agriculture and telecommunications." 

Gutierrez spoke on his first priority as he steps into the position. 

"The first thing we have to do is work with the government of Guam and the public health community to make sure we have something to sell here before we start figuring out how to market what we have," Gutierrez said. "We don't know what we have and when we're going to have it. That's what I want to do, is to be able to gather all the information, all the intels that the tourist industry, the marketing people at GVB have gathered over the last two and a half months so that I can make an evaluation and speak with the governor about it. Like she said, we have to be able to get ourselves up to the optimum safe destination for people to even look at us."

Beyond the economy, the island's public health and keeping COVID-19 at bay continues to be a priority for the government, the governor said. We can expect more community testing coming down the pipeline. 

Remember our goal is not simply to move from one PCOR to another," she said. "It is to open our economy in a way that protects both lives and livelihoods."