“I don’t think any entrepreneur will tell you that more customers is too many. Having said that, we must plan well in order to accommodate the increase and achieve this goal successfully. However, there is no perfect plan for the unforeseen challenges, but we must take the calculated risk and move forward with the increase in tourism.”
— Benson Au-Yeung
President, Benz Sign Supplies, and general manager, Paradise Awning
“No, I do not. Currently we have low occupancy at our hotels for most of the year and full occupancy for short periods, like Golden Week. If we are able to spread out the room demand throughout the year to an average occupancy of 85% to 90%, we can easily achieve the two million tourists level without burdening our island or its infrastructure or affecting our standard of living.”
— Christopher K. Felix
President and principal broker, Century 21 Realty Management Co. Inc.
“As a hotelier I would, of course, like to see an increase in visitors to fill up my rooms. Unfortunately, I don’t think our island is quite ready yet. Until we resolve fixable challenges, such as continued long lines at immigration; infrastructure, such as better sidewalks; potholes; lightings and public restrooms and more multi-language speaking service staff. Many of our island destination competitors have invested heavily in improving in these areas where we’re still lacking. I have just returned from Indonesia, and the government has recently included more countries on their visa waiver list (including USA) to boost tourism. This year alone, I have visited Shanghai, Singapore, Manila, Tokyo, Jakarta, and the immigration lines [at the airport] for visitors is never more than 15 minutes. Here in Guam our guests often complain of waits of over an hour. You can bring in two million or more tourists, but what’s the point if we can’t give them a good overall experience and make them want to come back again to our island?”
— Sunardi Li
President, Sentry Hospitality Corp., which does business as Aqua Suites Guam and Days Inn Guam
“Because we are an island, our tourism is a function of two basic factors: the number of airline seats and the number of hotel rooms we have. To have two million visitors, a rough estimate is that Guam would need about 9,000 hotel rooms all else equal, assuming two persons per room over a three-night stay at near maximum capacity. The number was about 7,600 rooms in 2014. So it is possible for Guam to have two million visitors in the next five years. There is one final undervalued point: If we included all current military activity on Guam, we may already be over two million visitors per year, all else equal.”
— Ronald L. McNinch
Associate professor, University of Guam
“I think it’s an attainable goal if we can secure the China visa waiver, but we need to add more hotel rooms and attractions.”
— James W.S. Adkins
Vice president, East-West Rental Center
“Remember the $15 billion buildup of 2008? Two million by 2020 is in the same category. Yes, expansion is nice, but it needs to follow the market and be realistic. Do we really want another bubble?”
— William H. Hagen
Founder, Pacific Solar and Photovoltaics
