{"id":307133,"date":"2019-09-03T06:06:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=307133"},"modified":"2019-09-03T06:06:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T20:06:42","slug":"guam-governor-joins-gvb-delegation-to-woo-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/guam-governor-joins-gvb-delegation-to-woo-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Guam governor joins GVB delegation to woo Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The U.S. Ambassador holds a reception for the Guam Visitors Bureau delegation last Aug. 27. From left, Jeffrey Cook, first gentleman of Guam; Joseph M. Young, interim charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires of the U.S. Embassy; Guam Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero; P. Sonny Ada, Guam Visitors Bureau board chairman; and Pilar Lagua\u00f1a, GVB president and chief executive officer. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TUMON, Guam\u2014Guam Gov. Lou A. Leon Guerrero led a Guam Visitors Bureau delegation to Tokyo, Japan, in the final week of August to introduce Guam\u2019s new leaders to Japan since she took office in February 2019.<\/p>\n

The trip, which took place from Aug. 5 to 28, was intended to introduce Guam\u2019s new leaders to Japan\u2019s trade partners, express thanks to those who have invested in Guam, and possible flights to Haneda in the future.<\/p>\n

Besides Leon Guerrero, others on the Guam delegation were GVB board chair P. Sonny Ada, GVB president and chief executive officer Pilar Lagua\u00f1a, GVB vice chairman and Air Service Development Committee chair Milton Morinaga and several other key GVB board representatives. <\/p>\n

There were meetings with the Japan Association of Travel Agents, the Japan Tourism Agency, and Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, plus a reception at the U.S. Ambassador\u2019s residence in Akasaka, Tokyo. <\/p>\n

Of the 5.6 million Japanese visitor arrivals to the United States in 2018, Guam accounted for about 17%. <\/p>\n

U.S. Embassy interim charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires Joseph M. Young welcomed the Guam delegation at the U.S. Ambassador\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuam is the gateway to the United States and a very familiar destination for Japanese people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A highlight of the evening was the introduction of Guam\u2019s new executive leadership and GVB\u2019s newly contracted Japan marketing representative.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Guam Visitors Bureau delegation meets with representatives of the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau last Aug. 26, in Tokyo. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leon Guerrero said it was absolutely essential for the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau to understand Guam\u2019s \u201cstrong and very clear position that we continue to seek any opportunities to secure a slot out of Haneda airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan has long been an integral part of the tourism industry for our beautiful island and we must plan for a sustainable visitor economy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Leon Guerrero said it was important to express Guam\u2019s deep appreciation for the business that members of JATA send to Guam. Approximately 70% of Guam\u2019s Japanese visitors are from packages sold by JATA members.<\/p>\n

Ada said, \u201cIt is important to have our leadership express the utmost commitment to our key industry partners who are responsible for helping us sell over 830,000 seats annually. We have been able to demonstrate, that with their help, we were able to turn the market around and regain market losses experienced in the last two years. We are seeing significant movement in improving our market position because of these partners and investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guam is approximately a three-hour flight from Japan. There are currently four airlines operating 64 flights per week directly from Japan to Guam. In addition, there are 800 charter flights being scheduled in 2019.<\/p>\n

Lagua\u00f1a noted that Guam must do all it can to attract more air seat inventory and fill those seats to regain Guam\u2019s market position in Japan. \u201cDue to the volatile industry that we are in, we must continue to go after more air seats. We must equally ensure that our product, as a destination, is prepared to welcome our visitors and generate economic benefit for our island community.\u201d (GVB)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TUMON, Guam\u2014Guam Gov. Lou A. Leon Guerrero led a Guam Visitors Bureau delegation to Tokyo,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":307135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[51,7969,170],"class_list":["post-307133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biba-marianas","tag-guam","tag-gvb","tag-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}