Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero led a Guam delegation to South Korea to help boost air seat capacity and strengthen partnerships with leading airlines from the Asian country.
The mission comes at a time when Guam’s tourism recovery from the pandemic remains among the slowest in the world.
Leon Guerrero was joined by Guam Visitors Bureau General Manager Carl Gutierrez, GVB Board Directors Ho Eun and Ken Yanagisawa, and Guam International Airport Authority Executive Director John Quinata. Ho is the chairman of the GVB Korea Marketing Committee, while Yanagisawa is the chairman of the GVB Japan Marketing Committee.
“Overall, our delegation was well received by all our business partners and we had very fruitful and promising discussions. Airline management teams were in full support of our programs and offerings. I am very proud of the GVB team both in Guam and Korea. Together we will continue working to increase visitor arrivals and improve their overall experience on Guam,” the governor said in a statement.
The mission is focused on reinforcing ties with major partners, including Jeju Air, Jin Air, Korean Air, and t’way, to offer incentives for additional flights while preserving the existing airline schedule, GVB said in a press release.
GIAA’s Quinata said Korean visitors are essential to Guam’s business revenue. Guam currently has four airlines actively serving the market and the current seat capacity is about 60% of pre pandemic numbers from Korea.
“This mission gave us a great opportunity to speak face to face with airline CEOs on how Guam can collectively support expanded services for additional frequency, seasonal services, and consider new originating cities from Korea, adding to our current passenger base from Incheon and Busan airports,” Quinata said in a statement.
In addition to the airline talks, a significant highlight of the Korea mission was the signing of a memorandum of understanding between GVB and Shinhan Card, one of Korea’s largest financial service providers, GVB said.
With approximately 29 million cardholders, Shinhan Card has successfully driven Guam-bound consumer traffic through joint initiatives with GVB like the GoGo! Guam Pay, offering their cardholders exclusive discounts and added value for their Guam vacations, the bureau added.
“Increasing visitor spend improves the value chain that our visitors and locals have come to enjoy,” GVB’s Gutierrez said in a statement.
Recent data from Shinhan Card indicates that cardholder spending on Guam tripled in 2024 compared to the same promotional period in 2019, according to GVB.
Additionally, the delegation met with U.S. Ambassador to Korea Philip S. Goldberg, to discuss visa entry requirements for special interest groups, with the aim of expanding GVB’s marketing initiatives and creating new opportunities to attract Korean visitors to Guam.