Although the amount of tourists who visited Guam increased in September, the total amount of visitors for the year will fall short of the total visitors compared to last year according to the Guam Visitors Bureau.

Last year the island saw an overall total of 1.14 million visitors to Guam for the year, while projections for this year will be around 1.05 million tourists.  A survey by GVB also showed that tourists who come to Guam are also spending less on average than they did last year.

The decline in Guam’s tourism industry is more than likely a result of the bad global economy, but with analysts saying the worst is over hopefully our tourism industry will begin to pickup next year.  One aspect which might help improve the amount of visitors to Guam in the near future is the current decline of the United States dollar when compared to other world currencies.  A weak U.S. dollar makes it more affordable for visitors from other countries to vacation in U.S. destinations while hopefully spending more, as the weak U.S. dollar give these international visitors more spending power during their vacation.  The current decline in the U.S. dollar with respect to the Japanese yen can be a positive situation for Guam, as a majority of tourists who visit Guam come from Japan.

This weekend it was announced that the Guam Aurora Resort and Spa will be closing its hotel rooms and will be suspending its main operations on June 1, although the restaurant and spa located in the hotel will remain open for business.  The closing of the hotel rooms is said to be only temporary, and although there is no definitive date as to when operations will resume the hotel’s general manager stated it would most likely occur when the local economy on Guam starts to pick up again when the military relocates to the island.

Declining tourism arrivals and hotel bookings because of the decline in the global economy and fears of the current swine flu epidemic have been contributing factors.

Over the last year, Guam’s tourism industry, as well as the global tourism industry, has been negatively effected by the downturn in the global economy.  In addition, recent news of the swine flu epidemic have magnified the problems for tourism on Guam as Japanese visitors decide to travel less because of fears, even though there have been no reported cases of swine flu on Guam to date.