Guam wants the
Japanese visitor business

The U.S. territory tries to beat out
Hawaii for the lucrative summer
flow of tourists from Japan

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By David Briscoe
Associated Press

HAGATNA, Guam >> Guam is trying to jump ahead in a race with cross-ocean rival Hawaii for the biggest travel prize in the Pacific: summer tourists from Japan.

Guam Gov. Felix Camacho left yesterday with his wife, Joann, and the U.S. territory's top tourism officials for a three-city blitz of Japan, trying to sell Guam as the best destination for Japanese travelers.

The goal is to attract 180,000 Japanese tourists this summer by advertising Guam as a tropical American island to match Hawaii, only a lot closer.

Meanwhile, Gov. Linda Lingle, 3,700 miles across the Pacific from Guam, has indicated her long-anticipated tourism promotion trip to Japan won't come before July, deep into the summer travel season.

Camacho, who like Lingle is a Republican struggling with tough times and a Democratic Legislature, is counting on a summer revival of Japanese tourism to boost an economy even more troubled than Hawaii's.

In addition to troubles brought by the war in Iraq, increased tension on the Korean peninsula and now the SARS scare, Guam still is struggling to recover from supertyphoon Pongsona in December.

Hundreds of hotel rooms remain boarded up, which would be a worse problem if there were any tourists.

Travel to Guam from Japan is down 30 percent from last year, when it was already in a dive from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In Hawaii, it's been down about 15 percent from 2002.

But Guam tourism promoters have high hopes for attracting the Japanese, which account for 87 percent of travel to the island just 1,357 miles from Tokyo.

"All indications from various Japan wholesalers are that it is going to be a fairly decent summer for the Japanese," said Alberto Lamorena, manager of the Guam Visitor Bureau, before he left with Camacho for a series of meetings and presentations in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

"They've been cooped up for several months with the SARS scare and Iraq and they're looking for safe destinations."

China and Hong Kong, which attract up to 2.4 million Japanese visitors a year, are off-limits because of the danger of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Guam advertises itself as SARS-free, with intense screening of passengers from SARS-affected countries, including required twice-daily temperature checks.

"We're a proven destination with the Japanese. The Japanese know Guam. And we're safe," said Lamorena.

As Japanese travelers also become more price conscious, Hawaii is a more expensive American destination than Guam.

From its mini Waikiki, complete with Planet Hollywood and high-priced European retailers, to side-by-side Texas and Mexican restaurants, Guam advertises itself as the land where America's day begins.

The island even has one of Hawaii chef Sam Choy's restaurants and Hawaii-based ABC Stores, tourist convenience stores stocked with stacks of $2.99-a-box Hawaiian Sun macadamia nut chocolates.

Guam is a three-hour hop from Japan, while Hawaii is a seven-hour flight.

The Guam delegation's trip is expected to cost about $30,000, which promoters view as a bargain considering what's at stake.

Guam and Hawaii account for about 60 percent of all outbound Japanese leisure travel to the United States, with nearly a third of those going to Guam.

Lamorena said for an island of 150,000 people, compared to Hawaii's 1.2 million, that's not bad.