While Guam has very accessible resorts, the island lacks a “must visit” appeal, according to Guam Visitors Bureau acting President and CEO Gerry Perez.

“There’s really nothing unique or compelling to choose Guam over other destinations that are also convenient. Other than a US territory, they consider Guam to be another ordinary southern island,” said Perez.

Perez shared sentiments like these from Japanese and Korean visitors, Guam's top two markets, during Monday's tourism recovery forum.

KUAM read aloud those comments to the public.

Yona resident Larry Baysingar has mixed feelings.

“I don’t know. We don’t have anything like theme parks and Game Works went down. We kind of lack anything big like that like Six Flags. But if we had a way to show them the beauty of our island, that might inspire them to come out like if we had more tour guides for hikes.,” said Baysinger.

He admits more can be done to feature the beauty of the island and culture.

“When I was younger when I was here, we did a lot more with fiestas like Talo’fo’fo is big on that. I kind of agree. I don’t see a lot of locations you can go other than maybe the hotels. They have some like Tahitian dancing, but that is Tahitian, that’s not CHamoru culture,” added Baysinger.

GVB said visitors from Japan and Korea both want to experience more of the local culture.

These residents also agree.

“I think we need to spend more funds I guess and resources promoting our local culture and way of life. There’s really nothing going on here,” said Sinajana resident Chadler Brandon.

“I think we can definitely get more functions that deal with ancient CHamoru culture. I think they’re right, we can do that better,” added Baysinger.

“We should do more with our culture because our culture is actually dying,” said Chalan Pago resident Hayle Siguenza.

Additionally, some visitors are “turned off” by Guam marketing its connection to the US, saying it’s better to highlight Guam's “uniqueness” instead.

Chalan Pago resident AJ Muna agrees. “We consider ourselves to be US territory, but the uniqueness in our CHamoru culture, I mean it’s for us to be more proud of,” said Muna.

He said while GVB has different programs with hotels and local businesses, more can be done to market the experiences Guam has to offer.

“But I think we should put ourselves out there as far as giving our tourists, people who come to see what Guam is all about, a little bit of a broader spectrum on where to go, how to meet the people and different areas they are missing out on,” added Muna.

As reported, GVB has proposed a two-year $60 million tourism recovery plan that prioritizes airline incentives, a new marketing campaign and destination development that will require both the public and private sectors working together.

There were 1.4 million visitors in 2019, according to GVB’s situation report. Arrivals for this year are forecasted at 561,000, about a third of which are pre-pandemic arrivals. Japan arrivals continues to fall behind with 30 percent recovery versus Korea’s 50 percent.