GUAM. Tourism continued at a low level in March but with more Japanese and younger visitors.
According to a report by the Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) total air arrivals remained down -31% in March, mainly due to drop off in Asian visitor numbers. Among the most important visitor groups, numbers from South Korea were down -38%, Taiwan -28%, Hong Kong -50%, Thailand -38%, Philippines -31% and Europe -17%. Japanese numbers were down -33% but this was a slightly improved position compared to January and February. Visitor numbers from the US mainland, Hawaii and Australia were up by +8%, +14% and +15% respectively.
Travel within Asia and the Pacific was seen as a major alternative for the Japanese outbound market since December 2002, as it grappled with nervousness over the Iraq war, but travel warnings caused travel demand to plunge further. Japanese visitors remain key to Guam and accounted for almost 81% of the overall tourist market in March.
Meanwhile the largest age group that visited Guam in March were 18 to 29 year olds, and especially younger females. This age range accounted for 32% of visitors in March, a trend that can be explained by the current deep discounting of holidays in Japan.
