Big Wave: tourism program geared to offer big incentives to Japanese visitors

In another bid to boost local tourism, one industry group is rolling out a new program. It's calling on all stakeholders to roll out the discounts and incentives to entice Japanese tourists in particular to visit Guam. The Big Wave is the latest initiative by the Guam Travel and Tourism Association and is based on stakeholder input from previous forums co-hosted with the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association.

The idea is that the private sector needs to do even more to promote Guam, especially now that a huge drop in the Yen against the U.S. Dollar has dramatically reduced the spending power of Japanese visitors. GTTA tourism policy committee chairman Dave Tydingco said, "Our goal, and this is really to enhance whatever activities and programs the Guam Visitors Bureau has already implemented, we decided that we as the private industry had to step up and show we are committed to the tourism recovery, and even more importantly we need to make sure we save our air seats."

United Airlines has committed the seats for various Japan-to-Guam routes since July, but more of them need to be filled in order for that to continue. "It is now end of January, and we're seeing trickles of it but more needs to be done to kind of stimulate interest in Guam and so that was the whole idea behind the campaign," he said.

GTTA acting chairman Bill Nault says the private sector needs to help make some "big noise" to attract Japanese visitors in particular. That noise could be in the form of meal discounts, resort credits, special deals and other incentives, as Gault said, "It's so difficult to make a noise when its only one business doing it at one given time."

"We all got together and said we need to make some noise to our market, and this is not just for tourism but basically for any business that wants to join us and who will welcome any travelers that comes to Guam that they're willing to help make that noise," he continued.

For any business that wants to join the Big Wave and make some noise, the Guam Economic Development Authority has developed a website, with Tydingco saying, "If you go to guamvisitors.com you will see every business that has signed up, and we're welcoming more businesses every day."

Wave, coincidentally, was also the name of an old GVB promotion launched by Guam tourism icon, the late Bert Unpingco. WAVE stood for "Welcome All Visitors, Enthusiastically".