GVB report: tourism generated $1.4 billion economic impact in 2024
According to a recent report by the Guam Visitors Bureau, visitors to Guam generated about $1.4 billion in direct, indirect, and reduced impacts to Guam’s economy.
GVB released its 2024 Guam Tourism Satellite Account, a report prepared by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, that provides a detailed analysis of where the tourism industry is for the year.
In 2024, 739,000 visitors traveled to the island, a 12.5% increase from 2023, but 44% of what arrival numbers were in 2019 which was about 1.67 million.
Guam saw 739,000 visitors in 2024 according to the latest Guam Tourism Satellite Account. Photo by Skyler Obispo
Korea and Japan continue to make up the largest share of Guam’s visitor market with 78.9% of visitors coming from those two markets in 2024.
Versus 2019 figures, Korea has taken over the majority of the visitor market share from Japan. Visitor volume from the country comprised 50.7% of the market in 2024, while Japanese arrivals have yet to recover.
Last year, visitors spent approximately $1.1 billion on Guam, which equates to $3.1 million per day on average on the island. Compared to 2023, this is a 6.7% increase in overall visitor spending, but 40% below pre-pandemic spending levels. In 2019, visitors spent a total of $1.788 billion.
“Visitor spending growth in 2024 was led by strong changes in retail and recreation expenditures," according to findings in the GVB report. Retail spending increased by 18.9% versus last year; similarly recreation spending increased by 9%.
Lodging continues to make up a majority of visitor expenditures. In 2024, tourism spent $444 million in the industry.
In terms of employment, visitor-supported (direct) employment increased to 10,786 jobs in 2024, a subtle increase versus last year, but still 63% of pre-pandemic employment levels (17,085 in 2019).
Overall, the visitor economy in 2024 supported 14,400 jobs on the island and direct visitor-supported employment accounted for 17% of all jobs in Guam in 2024.
Total tax revenues from tourism demand were valued at $151.3 million in 2024 with Guam’s Gross Receipts Tax (Business Privilege Tax) and Hotel Occupancy Tax generating $45.8 million and $29.1 million respectively. Additionally, the report notes that each household on Guam would need to be taxed an additional $3,444 to replace visitor generated tax revenues in 2024.
Total Tax revenues in 2024 are about 63% of its peak in 2019.
The report indicates overall, slow but steady recovery of Guam’s tourism industry from the COVID-19 pandemic across, revenues, visitor spending, and arrivals. mbj
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