TOURISM 2020 – ANALYSIS Alan Cepeda
Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Executive Summary............................................................................................................................................... 2 Issues with the Plan .............................................................................................................................................. 6 Lacks concrete research............................................................................................................................... 6 Tourism Academy – Is it needed? Has it been created already? ................................................................. 6 Strategic Marketing of Tourist Sources vs Mass Marketing and Packaged Tours ....................................... 6 Lack of Involvement from Locals ................................................................................................................. 7 Current Situation .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Tourism and Guam Society ................................................................................................................................... 9 Eight Tourists for One local .............................................................................................................................. 9 Eighty-Seven Tourists for One Worker ............................................................................................................. 9 Low Wage, Low End Jobs ............................................................................................................................... 10 Mass Transit ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Subservient Culture: Locals Catering to Tourists ........................................................................................... 11 unemployed and Not Looking.................................................................................................................... 11 Objective One: Improve Quality and Yield.......................................................................................................... 12 Guam’s Declining Service ............................................................................................................................... 12 Recruiting and Training Employees ........................................................................................................... 13 Employee Commitment and Engagement ................................................................................................. 13 Fair Pay ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 Tourism Academy ........................................................................................................................................... 14 Emphasis on Tumon ....................................................................................................................................... 14 Objective Two: Grow Arrivals and Diversify ....................................................................................................... 15 Do we need more tourists? ............................................................................................................................ 15 1|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
High-spending tourists vs. Luxury tourists vs. High-quality tourist ................................................................ 15 Chinese Tourist ............................................................................................................................................... 16 Objective Three: Add High End Hotel Rooms, Incentivize Reinvestment ........................................................... 16 Wholesale Destination ................................................................................................................................... 16 Hotel Development ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Resort Development ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Objective Six: Extend the Average Length of Stay .............................................................................................. 17 Realistic Tourism 2020 Plan ................................................................................................................................ 17
2|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
Executive Summary This report was put together to analyze the Tourism 2020 plan created by the Guam Visitors Bureau. The Tourism 2020 plan was accepted as a concrete and important plan that will guide Guam’s tourism industry for the next five years. The public contributed little to the research and development of the plan, but was accepted as is. This plan highlights some of the negative impacts of the plan as well as criticizes parts of the plan that lacks foresight. Tourism 2020 attempts to reposition Guam in the realm of Australia and Hawaii – Familiar and resort destinations. The idea is to copy what they are doing, without addressing the other factors that make their destination a success. If we want to model Guam after them, we need to completely assess these destinations and apply them fully. We can’t just adopt what we want and ignore other factors. Some objectives that can be detrimental to Guam’s tourism industry and society include improving quality and yield, growing arrivals and diversifying, adding high-end hotel rooms and incentivizing redevelopment, and extending the average length of stay. These objectives are wishful thinking, with no evidence or research backing up the claims.
Objective One: Improve Quality and Yield -
-
Tourism 2020 Assumptions: o
Adding more attractions and luxury accommodations will enhance our tourism industry
o
Guam lacks employees with skill set for luxury hotels
o
Tourism Academy is needed to improve worker pool
o
Protecting Tumon will enhance Guam’s tourism industry
Tourism Reality o
Guam has a lot of attractions, but a few of them are unique to Guam. Adding more attractions will make Guam more contrived and less luxurious.
o
Guam has a lot of employees capable of working in luxury hotels. Employer may not provide the conditions for workers to thrive. Employer expectations are too high. Employer must invest in their own employees and properly train them.
o
Guam already provides award-winning tourism programs at public schools, Guam Community College, and University of Guam. It is up to the employers to source from these schools. The employer must go to the students, students rarely know their options.
o
Tumon is very important and valued to many tourists. However, Tumon is a detriment to our industry and society. Tumon is considered a tourist trap to some and it keeps tourists in one location. They spend their money mainly within Tumon.
Objective Two: Grow Arrivals and Diversify -
Tourism 2020 Assumptions o
More tourists will lead to a better economy and society
o
Luxury tourists will lead to increase spending and an improved positioning
3|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
o -
More tourists from China will make Guam a luxury destination
Tourism Reality o
More tourists equals more mass tourism. Mass tourism has detrimental results. Guam attracts more people than there are people on Guam.
We import 800% our population. This is higher than any other tourist destination in the pacific.
More tourists also equals a need for more employees. Guam does not have enough employees to cater to so many tourists coming in. We are quickly running out of workers. A decrease of workers also means a decrease in opportunities.
More tourists will stress Guam’s society. People on Guam cater and are subservient to tourists. Speaking Japanese or Mandarin improves hiring odds and an increase in wages, not many people on Guam can do this so they make money by stealing from tourists.
o
Having to serve and cater to people not from Guam is insulting.
We don’t need any more tourists, we need to specifically target markets.
We need high-quality tourists and not high-spending tourists. The only people that directly benefit from high-spending tourists are the businesses. High-quality often means highspending, but high-spending does not always mean high-quality. Luxury tourists are harder to maintain and are more demanding.
o
The Chinese tourists is well-known for its spending.
They are also known as being bad tourists.
Guam will not attract the luxury market in China. We will continue to attract China’s mass market unless we specifically market only to luxury Chinese.
Objective Three: Add High-End Rooms, Incentivize Hotel Redevelopment -
Tourism 2020 Assumptions o
Development of resort hotels with 200+ rooms are great because they lead to more affordable homes
o -
Addition of luxury rooms will reduce Guam’s image as a wholesale destination
Tourism reality o
Hiding behind the guise of affordable homes just to use more of Guam’s limited resources to build large hotels is unreasonable. Large resorts have large impacts on the environment and society. Resort hotels do not have identities.
o
Guam has many hotels that are very luxurious, unfortunately Guam has so much inventory the luxury accommodations have to be sold at a fraction of hotel room prices in other destinations.
o
Guam will always remain a wholesale destination unless we reduce hotel room inventory.
Objective Six: Extending the Average Length of Stay -
Tourism 2020 Assumptions
4|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
-
o
Tourists are not staying long because tour packages offer short stays.
o
Tourists do not know of many of Guam’s other attractions
Tourism reality o
Guam lacks accommodations that enhance long stays. Average hotel rooms are small and lacking amenities that encourage long-term stays.
o
Many activities are too far. Tourists want to relax and enjoy the scenery.
5|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
Issues with the Plan Lacks concrete research -
Two Million Visitors o
Does not address how this number was determined
o
Does not explain the implications of attracting so many tourists in proportion to the local population
-
Hotel Development o
Does not address how many employees will be needed to staff more hotels
o
More hotels means an increase in Mass tourism and positioning as a wholesale destination
o
More hotels does not necessarily equate to a luxury destination regardless of whether the hotels are luxury
o
Does not look at environmental implications of resort development
o
Does not look at current infrastructure such as firefighting capabilities
o
Unless we scale back hotel rooms, we will always be susceptible to mass tourism and packaged tours
-
Worker Needs o
Does not address why workers lack service
o
Blames lack of service on the worker and not on the employer
o
Do people on Guam still want to work at a low wage, low end job?
Tourism Academy – Is it needed? Has it been created already? -
-
Government of Guam already invests and subsidizes tourism education for the public o
ProStart and Lodging Management Program
o
Guam Community College
o
University of Guam
Government should not be expected to do the job that private businesses don’t want to do. o
Their responsibility to train employees and put up practices that allow their workers to be committed and engaged in their jobs
o
Their responsibility to recruit, select, and develop from within these tourism education sources
-
$300,000 can be used to improve these programs
Strategic Marketing of Tourist Sources vs Mass Marketing and Packaged Tours -
Does not address how Guam will strategically market new sources
-
Chinese Market o
How will we target them?
6|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
o
What specific mechanisms will we have to attract high-quality Chinese tourists?
o
Will we sell packages at wholesale?
o
What are the Chinese impressions of Guam?
US military base – is this luxury?
Lack of Involvement from Locals -
GVB does not address how they are going to get locals involved
-
Does not ask for local input on the plan
-
Very business-centric plan
-
Not a lot of cultural or societal elements
7|T our ism 20 20 A naly sis – A lan Ce pe da
Current Situation According to United Nations World Tourism
UNWTO 2013 International Tourist Arrivals - Oceania
Organization tourist arrival statistics, Guam is one of the most popular destinations in the Oceania region
5%
11%
(not including Hawaii). Guam ranks top three in tourist arrivals right behind
11% 51%
Australia and New Zealand – both of which are considered developed and wealthy nations and are iconic names in the region. Despite these rankings,
Australia New Zealand Guam Fiji All Other Islands*
22%
Guam is still a relatively unknown destination to the world. Guam takes an eleven-percent market share of the
*N. Mariana Is, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Cook Is,
region. Yet, popular destinations like Fiji and French
Samoa, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Palau, Tonga, Solomon Is,
Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora Bora) have a smaller share but
American Samoa, Niue, Kiribati, Marshall Is, Tuvalu, FSM (in
remains popular, exotic, and luxurious destinations.
descending order)
8|Tourism 20 20 Analysis – Alan Cepeda
Tourism and Guam Society The societal implications of our tourism industry are not studied in depth. Some key issues with Guam’s tourism industry include: -
Not enough human capital
-
Minimum wage, service based jobs
-
Presence of luxury shops in a relatively poor society
-
Conspicuous spending and perceived wealth of tourists
-
Innovation and entrepreneurship is stunted because of a tourist-based economy
-
Mass tourism brings more tourists than there are people on Guam
-
Tourists are considered more important than locals
Eight Tourists for One local
Eighty-Seven Tourists for One Worker
Guam brings in 800% its population every year. There are more tourists on island than there are locals at any given moment. There is no doubt that our marketing efforts have been very successful in bringing in tourists. However, this has many damaging impacts to Guam. One damaging impact is that business will cater to tourists instead of locals. This is evidenced in the nicer tourist infrastructures. Tumon is nicer than any village on Guam. The buses and bus stops are nicer and more efficient. Also, more small businesses open selling souvenirs or products meant to attract tourists. Tourists as the primary market of business on Guam puts more value on what tourists want and not what the locals want.
Another impact is that Guam may not have the human resources available to serve one million tourists, never mind two million. The plan does not mention how much employee will be needed to service two million workers effectively. If we look at very basic worker population statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Minimum Wage Impact Estimates, we have an inventory of about 70,000 people who are working or are able to work that the tourism industry can pull from. If this entire inventory was put into servicing our tourists, there will be about 19 tourists for every 1 service employee. This isn’t the case; about 75% are employed by the private government. The hospitality industry is a major employer. There are approximately 15,000 people employed in hospitality. The statistic becomes 15,000 workers to 1.3 million tourists or 1 worker for 87
9|Tourism 20 20 Analysis – Alan Cepeda
tourists. This statistic may also be the reason for
Tourism 2020 needs to address the development of
Guam’s declining service.
high-quality, high wage jobs.
This is just very basic employee population statistics. It
Tourism 2020 needs to address the average number of
is not known if Guam suffers from a worker shortage
jobs an employee holds. This may be suggestive of
or if businesses need more workers to effectively
whether employees are being paid enough in one job.
service 1.3 million tourists. What is known is that our
It can also be a catalyst to a declining service level as
workforce is very small and we may quickly run out of
workers may be exhausted to work.
a workforce as more opportunities open up. More
Mass Transit
research needs to be created to determine the adequate number of employees the tourism industry
Public transportation is considered the lifeblood of
needs to create a high-quality service industry.
any city. It allows for workers to get to and from their workplaces as quickly as possible.
Low Wage, Low End Jobs Tourism 2020 plan emphasizes the need of people who are willing to work in low wage, low end jobs. More hotels will be built which means more housekeepers, salespeople, wait staff, cooks, drivers, etc. will be needed to keep Guam’s tourism industry running. These jobs are low wage, low end jobs. Current living standards on Guam do not allow a person on Guam to thrive in these jobs. Coupled with the fact that other experience and knowledge may be necessary to perform well in these careers; jobs may become undesirable to people on Guam. So, the employers will have few well-qualified workers to choose from and this impacts the quality of service desired. Usually the hospitality industry has employees who are younger and in school or people who need part time jobs. Not many people plan on making a career as a waitstaff. As we create more educated and experienced workers, they desire more high paying, high-quality jobs. These jobs are much desired but
The benefits of public transportation and the economy is widely studied. A study by the A American Public Transportation Association report found on publictransportation.org has found that for every $1 invested in public transportation, $4 is generated in economic returns. In the US, 1.1 million jobs are created or sustained because of public transportation. The benefits to society are also more positive with an improved public transportation system. Transportation saves households money, the website finds that households can save $10,100 by taking public transportation and owning one car. Cars are one of the biggest expenditures to the household after housing. It allows residents to go to work, and gives access to job opportunities. Public transportation is great for the government. As car usage is reduced, road maintenance is reduced. The funding for road maintenance can then be used to pay for other important things like funding for better busses or to mitigate homelessness.
hard to come by causing employees to resent their
Public transportation has positive environmental
workplace, quit, or leave Guam. Every talent that
impacts. Public transportation reduces cars on the
leaves Guam is a talent that the industry misses out
road, need for fuel, exhaust and pollution. It also
from. Guam’s tourism industry may become a victim
allows leaner cities to be built with little need for
of its own success.
parking spots.
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Public transportation is very important to the tourism
threat to the tourism industry that can lead to the
industry. A 2014 American Public Transportation
destruction of the industry.
Association report finds that three out of five respondents plan to use public transportation for at least one activity when visiting a city. 18-44 year old were the likeliest to use public transportation, over half made $75k and over. Two out of five will use public transport to dine at restaurants and nightlife, 37% will use it for general sightseeing, and 34% will use it for shopping. Overall, public transportation is crucial for our economy and tourism industry. It gets people to and from work quickly, reduces environmental stress, and
This group is not stupid, they know tourist is important to Guam. They understand what will happen if our industry was to disappear. They aren’t against tourism on Guam, they are against the direction the government has taken our tourism industry. It has taken over forty years to get to this point, it can be destroyed very quickly.
Unemployed and Not Looking There is another statistic recently published in the
more tourists expect it. More tourists want to feel like
newspaper that states that there is a certain
a local when they travel.
percentage of unemployed people who are not
Subservient Culture: Locals Catering to Tourists This issue cannot be ignored by Tourism 2020. Many people have strong feelings against catering to people who are not from Guam. They are offended that the government of Guam continue to put the well-being of tourists ahead of the well-being of the people of Guam. Speaking Japanese or another language is important when working in Tumon. Speaking a tourist language will lead to increase wages and is necessary for certain high-quality job positions. Being able to speak another language is also important when trying to make sales, communicating to tourists, and making commission. Speaking and learning Japanese becomes more
looking. As much as we would like to shrug them off, they are an important statistic to look at. They represent a population that does not want to participate in Guam’s current job market for whatever reason. A portion of these people probably find our subservient culture to tourists to be demeaning and a bad representation of the people of Guam. Often, the only interactions the locals have with tourists is in a subservient position. They have given up hope and will lash out in whatever way they find. This breeds hostility to the tourism industry, and the desire to destroy the industry since it does not act in the best interest of the people. We will see an increase in crime especially crime against tourists.
important that speaking and learning Chamorro. These anti-tourism sentiments will continue to foster until we address their concerns. No matter the efforts put in place to convince residents that tourists are good for our economy, they will despise the government’s efforts to cater to tourists as oppose to locals. The fact remains that the tourist footprint is so large and evident, it must be mitigated. This is a huge 11 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
Objective One: Improve Quality and Yield Guam’s Declining Service Tourism 2020 mentions that Guam severely lacks a pool of skilled workers. To increase Guam’s pool of skilled service workers, Tourism 2020 finds that a hospitality training program for employees is necessary. Guam’s declining service can be blamed on two factors. The first is the employee’s lack of training, in which a service training program may help. The second is the employer not establishing the practices that allow their employees to thrive.
younger and in transition of a career. However, Guam’s turnover rate is incredibly low for the industry standard. This should suggest that employees are happy with their jobs and employers are satisfied with their employees. Tourism 2020 states that this is not the case. Employers are not satisfied with current employees and want more skilled labor. The low turnover rate in the hospitality industry could suggest that employees need a job and employers need people to fill positions. There aren’t many desirable jobs available; employees are holding on to whatever job they think is desirable as compared to others. There is competition for the few decent jobs available. There is no high-quality positions available
A good indicator of productivity in the labor market is
and no advancement opportunities. The hospitality
the turnover rate. Guam’s hospitality industry has a
industry stays stagnant.
turnover rate of 35%, according to Tourism 2020. The national turnover rate for the hospitality industry is 62.6%, Guam’s turnover rate is significantly lower. A high turnover rate is expected in the hospitality industry especially because many employees are
Guam does not just need a tourism academy, it needs a complete industry overhaul. There needs to be a tourism academy for employers and business owners as well. The industry needs to address their failings in: - Recruiting and training employees
12 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
-
Employee commitment and engagement
The plan needs to address what the employer and
-
Fair Pay
business can do to improve service among their
Recruiting and Training Employees Guam currently offers a comprehensive hospitality
employees. It could be as simple as employers providing the means to get their employees engaged and committed to making the company perform well.
industry program to the public much like a tourism academy. Public schools, Guam Community College,
Some employee practices that can lead to better
and University of Guam offer programs at all levels of
business results include:
the industry. High school offers programs in lodging
-
job and task design
and foodservice, Guam Community College train chefs
-
recruitment
and tour guides, and University of Guam trains
-
selection
managers and tourism professionals capable of
-
training
developing and innovating Guam’s tourism industry.
-
compensation
If businesses and employers want to breed a new
-
performance management
generation of high-quality service employees, they
-
career development
need to recruit and nurture talent as soon as they
Employee engagement and commitment to
enter one of these programs.
organizational goals is known to lead to desired
Government of Guam already offers these programs
business results. It isn’t the government’s
free or subsidized, it makes no sense to create more
responsibility to provide the training for the
programs that are already in place. Business just need
employees of private business that private business
to tap into the potential of all these students and
can do on their own.
resources.
Fair Pay
Another issue with these students is that the lack of
Compensation is one of the most important employer
recruitment and talent management from an early
practices that can lead to better job performance and
stage has them pursuing other interests. Guam loses
improved business results. Tourism 2020 should look
out on those who leave the field they were trained in.
into how the employer can improve better business
Many of these students leave Guam because of the
results internally. This includes increasing pay scales
lack of opportunities presented to them. The talent
for all their employees.
that the government paid for is leaving Guam
Employee Commitment and Engagement Tourism 2020 does not factor in that employees may not feel committed or engaged with their jobs and so they do the bare minimum. The plan blames the
Guam’s tourism industry relies on the employees as much as the businesses that allow it to thrive. When employers and business neglect to provide their employees the resources to succeed in their jobs, including fair compensation, the businesses alone is responsible for the shortfalls of the tourism industry.
failings of the lack of high-quality service on Guam on
The tourism industry has to address this issue to
the employees. It looks at what the government can
create a high-quality service level in their workplace.
do to bring up the level of service for private businesses. 13 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
Tourism Academy The proposed tourism academy is meant to increase the talent pool for typically low wage, low end jobs. It
whether the Tourism Academy will lead to the results anticipated. The tourism academy should also be a part of GCC or UOG degree program.
is created under the assumption that the workforce is at fault of Guam’s low quality service. Tourism 2020 does not address any similar mechanisms aimed at improving business and employer practices.
Emphasis on Tumon Tourism 2020 seems to protect Tumon businesses and attempts to keep tourists in Tumon. If we want tourists to have a more rich experience on Guam,
The government needs to address the following to
tourism infrastructures must be added outside of
determine whether the Tourism Academy is a wise
Tumon.
investment: -
Determine if the labor force on Guam is
out. An easy tourism infrastructure include improving
indeed at fault for low-quality service
the mass transportation system and integrating it with
Determine if the business environment at
the tourist buses.
different businesses have practices in place that allow employees to perform well for their company -
Tourists will be willing to spend more as they venture
Look at whether the government already has a “tourism academy” already in place in public high schools, Guam Community College, and University of Guam
This also changes the dynamic of the local-tourist relationship as more venture out of the resorts and boutiques of Tumon. No longer are locals serving tourists, tourists become engaged in the life of a local. More tourists want to feel and be like a local when they visit different countries.
Determine the benefits after completion of
Entrepreneurs and workers have a more equal
tourism academy, such as with a real increase
chance to benefit off of the tourism market when
in pay
their businesses don’t have to be located in the highly
-
How will success be measured
competitive and expensive Tumon area.
-
How will employees recoup their investment
-
What type of service are we teaching
-
employees Guam Community College and University of Guam are outlets put in place to educate people in the tourism industry. It is up to the business to strategically select and recruit from these outlets. The government already subsidizes the tuition of Guam residents, funding a tourism academy will be redundant and a waste of time and money. The $300,000 could be used to revamp GCC and UOG. It could also pay for kitchen improvements at Tiyan High School. Tourism 2020 needs to determine concretely what the reason for the lack of service on island is and 14 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
Objective Two: Grow Arrivals and Diversify
High-spending tourists vs. Luxury tourists vs. High-quality tourist High-spending tourists are very important. The
As mentioned previously, Guam brings in a large
economic impacts are unparalleled in any tourism
amount of tourists every year. A statistic found on
economy. However, we must identify if we want high-
Index Mundi ranks Guam as fifth for countries that
spending luxury tourists or high-spending high-quality
rely on tourism for their economy. The ranking looked
tourists.
at tourist per head of population.
Luxury tourists may just be as detrimental as mass
We don’t need to grow arrivals and we may not need
tourists. Luxury tourists believe money is king and can
to diversify. What we need to do is strategically
push the rules. They are more demanding and hard to
market our product to specific groups of people. To
maintain for the long-run. There is also a finite amount
do this we have to determine the highest-quality
of luxury tourists and no shortage of luxury
tourist possible and create strategies to market Guam
destinations. They are important tourist that we
specifically to them. Reduce efforts in other areas that
should attempt to attract but should not bet our
we get mass tourists from.
entire industry on it.
Do we need more tourists? The centerpiece of Tourism 2020 is to attract two million visitors by the year 2020. The plan doesn't extrapolate on why and how this number was determined. It's possible this number was derived from assumptions of tourist figures of other countries. Guam already does a successful job in attracting and bringing visitors, our visitor numbers is very high in terms of tourist per head of local population and tourist per sq. mi. We bring in eight-hundred percent our population. We bring in 800% our population do we have the labor to cater to all these tourists?
The tourists we should attract are highly educated, medium to high wealth, liberal, and sociallyconscious. These tourists spend more on quality, value uniqueness, and complain less. They don't care about tourist districts, this is as harmful as urban blight to them, but they will visit these districts. They will pay for experiences. They are very concerned about where their money will go and will try to engage in local products so as to spread the wealth. They understand their impact to the society, economy, and environment and want to mitigate it as much as possible. Marketing efforts should focus on highly educated centers in source countries, where people are employed in cultural and education facilities such as museums, universities, etc. Marketing should also consider the LGBT community; they are known to be a highly lucrative tourist source. Progressive tourist destinations such as Sweden have already been targeting this market. Families are another high-spending demographic. Guam should continue its efforts to promote to these
15 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
people as our current tourism infrastructure is well supported for family packaged and all-inclusive resorts.
Chinese Tourist Chinese tourists are another lucrative source. They
Objective Three: Add High End Hotel Rooms, Incentivize Reinvestment Wholesale Destination
have been travelling in mass quantities. Many countries have seen a positive increase to their
One of the reasons why Guam is considered a
economy from the travelling Chinese.
wholesale destination is because we have a lot of
Currently, China has been cracking down on bad
hotel inventory to sell.
travelers. They have been disciplining their people to
When we add more hotels we have even more hotel
behave politely when they visit other countries.
inventory to sell and continue with our wholesale
Chinese tourists have made recent headlines in many
concept. To sell luxury and quality we need to sell
countries for misbehaving.
scarcity. We have to actually reduce hotel rooms.
-
A Chinese tourist ruined an Egyptian artifact
GVB needs to explain exactly why more hotels are
-
Chinese tourists destroyed agave plants in
needed.
Taiwan -
Hotel Development
They have been buying mass quantities of everyday items in Hong Kong and bringing it
Chapter 70 of Title 12 of the Guam Code Annotated
back to China
incentivizes the development of hotels with no less
There’s a possibility that as more Chinese travel, they will become more travel-savvy. However, Guam isn’t seen as a luxury destination to the Chinese. Guam is seen as a US military base. It will be hard to convince
than two-hundred rooms. We need to determine whether adding more rooms will be positive for our tourism industry or if we just end up continuing with our image as a wholesale destination.
Chinese tourists to view Guam as a luxurious
We also need to determine whether we will have the
destination.
resources to support these new hotels such as with
Currently, Guam will still attract the Chinese mass market and not the luxury market as much.
the labor force, land, power, etc. Incentivizing hotel development with no less than two-hundred rooms will stifle development of other accommodation types. Small B&B’s and inn owners will have a tougher time attracting tourists who will stay in hotels. Guam needs to focus in adding high-quality, lowimpact hotel rooms. Also, we need to find a way to develop these rooms without the need of more workers to maintain them. We don’t have a large labor pool to work with. Creating more job
16 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
opportunities without an actual labor force will harm
Objective Six: Extend the Average Length of Stay
our economy and our tourism brand. We must complete a comprehensive analysis of Guam’s workers demographic to predict what jobs
Our accommodation offerings are limited to resort
will be needed in the future. Hotel developments and
hotels. There are few accommodations that offer
attractions should only be approved based on the
comfortable long-term stays. If the length of stay is to
number of workers a hotel will need and the type of
increase, we need incentivize the development of
employment that will be created. If a single hotel
accommodations that allow visitors to stay in a room
worker needs exhausts the current labor pool, we
comfortably.
must articulate the need for that hotel to be scaled
Tourists come to Guam because it is close, they want
down.
to relax, and because of the scenery. Tourists may not
Resort Development Resorts have huge impacts on the environment and Guam’s resources. They take up a significant amount
be interested in more activities. They may just want to relax. Tourists and market data finds three days stay to be enough at this point of time.
of space to build and a significant amount of resources
To increase the average length of stay, we need to
to keep running. The more we stretch out what little
create accommodations that allow for extended stays.
resources we have, the lower the quality becomes.
We also need to improve transportation so that
This is evident in our labor force. We have very few
tourists can freely go anywhere they want on Guam.
excellent quality workers and the hotels are fighting
Busing and biking systems may be enhanced.
for them. Resort hotels bring in a large amount of tourists. One strange thing about tourists is that they don’t want to be around other tourists. More tourists could be bad for our tourism industry just as much as not having any. We need to determine that comfortable zone for Guam, where we have enough tourist to keep our engines running but not a lot that impacts the uniqueness of Guam. That zone might be the one million tourist area. Resort hotels are not comfortable accommodations for extended stays. The development of resort hotels conflicts with the desire to increase average length stay. Guam lacks the capabilities to fight fires in high-rise resorts. This can pose a serious problem in the future. Either fund the fire department or stop creating highrise hotels. 17 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a
Realistic Tourism 2020 Plan
Objective 7: Integrate mass transit with shopping buses to expand the tourists reach on island
The economies of our current source countries are
Objective 8: Create forums and roundtable discussion
shaky and show signs of slowing. We should take this
on tourism
opportunity to slow down and scale back our visitor arrivals to assess our tourism industry.
We don’t need to bring any more people on island. We need to strategically target people to get to Guam.
The most important stakeholders in our tourism
The main goals for Guam in the future should be to:
industry is the local people of Guam. The locals have -
had little opportunity to voice their ideas and
Turn Guam into a center of Research and
concerns of our tourism industry. They have little
Innovation for tourism, this falls in line with
control or are given little input to decide on the
UOG as a research driven school -
direction of our tourism industry.
Allow athletes to stay and practice on Guam leading to Tokyo 2020
We give all this responsibility to GVB and they don’t
-
often have the interests of the people of Guam in
Allow workers to thrive with dignity in all jobs on Guam
mind. Interests and needs of businesses in Tumon is
-
primary to the needs of the locals. They look at the
Develop strategies to improve and mitigate impacts of mass-tourism on island.
financials and economic benefits as it relates to the people of Guam. GVB assumes that the people of
If we make Guam a great place for the locals to stay,
Guam will be satisfied if GVB can create jobs, generate
we will make Guam a great place for people to visit.
hotel occupancy tax, and create affordable homes.
We need to get back to basics and reassess our industry; determine what we have been good at and
This is a more realistic plan created by analyzing the
what we have been bad at and fix this.
current trends on Guam. Objective 1: Develop a High-quality Workforce on Island by revamping tourism programs at high schools, GCC, and UOG. Objective 2: Promote and Develop infrastructure for Sports Tourism in light of Tokyo 2020 Objective 3: Incentivize development of low-impact, high-quality hotels Objective 4: Strategically Market Guam to high-quality tourists Objective 5: Develop high-quality careers in tourism that is research and innovation oriented Objective 6: Attract international student tourists to study Hospitality and Tourism at UOG
18 | T o u r i s m 2 0 2 0 A n a l y s i s – A l a n C e p e d a