GVB board approves $1.5M budget for marketing promotion with English football team

The Guam Visitors Bureau board of directors approved a marketing deal with a “top-tier” British football team the Tottenham Spurs, capping the budget at $1.5 million.

Gerald S.A. Perez, vice president of GVB, started off the Aug. 22 meeting discussing the football team as well as a $900,000 investment in a Japanese movie drama series that will include Guam in at least one episode. These are efforts to promote Guam in Asia, which are traditional tourism markets that haven’t been doing very well.

Perez added that these opportunities will hopefully help Guam get through the “headwinds that we’re facing.”

“Everybody’s been kind of concerned because our regional trajectory of 55% to 60% pre-COVID has been stymied with currency weakness,” Perez said. “Our main customer base’s currency has been devalued, there’s a lot of competition in nearby destinations that can take advantage of economies of scale, and a cheaper co-structure … We’ve not been very competitive.”

For Korea, they’re hoping the Tottenham team, an English Premier League team, will help attract not just more tourists but tourists whose spending power isn’t curtailed when the exchange rates favor the U.S. dollar over the wan or even the yen. Tottenham is currently ranked fifth out of 21 teams in the league.

“In terms of using an international marketing platform, for a top tier soccer team (Tottenham) that has a Korean athlete, that is a start,” Perez said of the year-long promotion. “We want to take advantage of this Korean star personality to help us with the market in Korea. He’ll be available for us to use in developing our marketing collaterals and marketing content for social media.”



The captain of the Tottenham Spurs is Son Heung-min, a Korean who is also a key player on the South Korean national team. He played in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In 2023, Calvin Klein named him an ambassador and released campaign photos of him modeling CK products. 

Perez said they’re working out the details but needed the board’s consent before finalizing the deal.

George Chiu, chairman of the GVB board of directors and executive vice president of Tan Holdings and chairman, shared his support for these efforts saying the drama series is “something different and I know that thing is definitely a workable way to increase tourism.”

“We think this is a viable alternative, because traditional marketing hasn’t been working. We’re asking the board to approve is to cap this (marketing deal) at $1.5 million (then) they will go back and determine what is the menu of items of what they will give us … the deliverables for the $1.5 million,” Chiu said.

“From my experience where we have spent this amount of money on deliverables it’s been quite successful. I can’t guarantee it’s going to be 100% successful for Guam,” he said.  Chiu added that the tie-in with an English premier league has never been done on Guam before.

“I think it’s worth the gamble. Our traditional marketing hasn’t been working. We’ve spent so much money in the past … it might be worth the gamble,” he said.

Sonny Ada, one of the board directors and president of Ada’s Trust & Investment Inc., asked if they’ll also be doing any incentives that can help fill the flights and bring people to Guam. “It was successful what we did for Independence Day,” Ada said.

Joaquin P. L.G. Cook, board member and president and CEO of Bank of Guam, said the two things could work together with the other marketing efforts. He added the tie-in with Tottenham could help “amplify our reach in a good way.”

The $1.5 million will be coming from the Tourism Attraction Fund and is all that can be spared from the budget at this time, Perez said.

In other updates, Japan Airlines will start daily flights to Guam on Oct. 27. Currently, it’s flying four times a week.

Perez said he’s hoping this helps fill hotel rooms, which are at about 66%.

Chiu said another issue that needs to be discussed is military rates for hotels.

“We love the military to come. Military (personnel) is probably why we’re surviving (but) we can’t rely on just that,” he said adding that previously there have been instances when tourists had a hard time booking rooms because they were filled with military personnel.

One aspect of military stay he’d like to address is the military per diem rates for hotels.

“We’re hoping that whoever the next congressman is here will get it from $159 up to a higher (rate). We need to get some higher room rates and that would be good for everybody.”

Carl T.C. Gutierrez, president and CEO of GVB, said they’ve had crews helping to clean areas not just in Tumon but in areas where tourists travel through a lot.

Chiu acknowledged the effort saying destination management needs to be a priority. He asked that GVB work with Adelup or the Legislature on providing incentives to property owners to fix dilapidated buildings.

“There’s no point of inviting visitors if they come and see the eye sores,” he said.

Ho Eun, Core Tech International chairman and chairman of the GVB board of directors Korea Market, added to the airline incentives discussion, saying perhaps landing fees at the Guam International Airport Authority can be reduced. Eun said airlines companies are asking to lower landing fees. “During COVID, GIAA applied that discount,” but added that it’s been yanked.

“Our rate is probably one of the lowest in the United States airports. However, in comparison to southeast Asia, our rate is probably pretty high. And GIAA facility itself is not a luxurious airport, it’s more about utility… We can’t really justify charging much higher than Asian airports,” he said.

Chiu said the concern with asking GIAA to reduce fees because they’re tied to bond repayments. But that is something that they can discuss with airport officials.

Eun also raised the concern about the airline incentives and its structure. He pointed out the incentive for airlines is based on load percentage, which can be counterproductive.

“There’s no real incentive to increase flights,” he said.

Chiu agreed that airline incentives is something they need to continue discussing and working on.

“At the end of the day, we want more seats, and we want to be able to fill up those seats,” he said.

Gutierrez also reported that the $28.9 million budget for fiscal 2025 has been submitted to the governor’s office.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17.