GUAM. Visitor figures for Guam worsened again in March, showing a year-on-year decline of -32% in arrivals, compared to -19% in February and -32% in January.
Figures released by Guam Visitors Bureau show a broad impact of the global troubles across several nationalities. Japanese arrivals which account for 77% of the island’s tourism business, were down -33% year-on-year in March. Korean arrivals were also down -38%, Taiwanese -28% and visitors from the US mainland -8%.
All Nippon Airways has said it intends to cancel its daily service from Osaka to Guam later this month. According to the Kyodo news service, it will continue operating daily flights to Guam from Tokyo.
Meanwhile the dollar is strengthening on world currency markets, and one of the currencies weakening as a result is the Japanese yen. The yen has been trading at around 120 to the dollar today, and seems headed lower which is bad news for Japanese tourist spending and destinations such as Guam, Hawaii and South Korea. But Japanese tourism in Guam seems affected far more by other factors at the moment, including economic conditions within Japan. See also Currency Room.
