GVB takes part in Tourism Expo Japan 2025 in Nagoya

BY JULIAN RYALL
Japan Correspondent

NAGOYA, Japan — Japanese travelers are rediscovering Guam as a vacation destination, with arrivals from Japan in the January-July first half of the year out-performing the average growth from all markets. 

While international arrivals were up 14% in the first six months of 2025, arrivals from Japan were up an impressive 18%, according to officials of the Guam Visitors Bureau taking part in Tourism Expo Japan 2025.

“We have exceeded the overall year-on-year increase, and we are very pleased at the strong showing that we are seeing in key segments that are driving the recovery, said Régine Biscoe Lee, a former senator in the Guam legislature and since February the general manager of GVB.
“We have been focusing on attracting young families and young women who want to travel and been successful with that,” she told the Journal. 

“The outlook is positive as well as we have been able to add a new service between Osaka’s Kansai International Airport and Guam with T’Way Air to complement the Delta Air Lines service and we are looking at other additions in 2026 as well,” she said. 

A number of initiatives have really driven awareness of Guam among Japanese consumers and then highlighted the destination’s appeal, she added. 

Possibly the most effective has been the collaboration with TV Tokyo on the ground-breaking docu-drama “Why I’m With You,” the first time the broadcaster has set one of its programs entirely abroad. The show was first aired in Japan on July 1 and the first series attracted 1.5 million viewers per episode. 

The program follows the experiences of three couples living on Guam, highlighting the island’s culture, natural beauty and cuisine as they appeal to couples of different generations. 

“The show has been shot all across the island and has broad appeal because it follows couples of different age groups,” Lee said. “It has attracted a huge following on social media, and a lot of people are now planning ‘pilgrimage trips’ to the places that appear in the show.

“The show is also aired on KUAM TV 8 in Guam as well, and we are finding that immediately after every episode is aired in Japan, online searches for travel to Guam have gone through the roof,” she said. 

The eighth and final installment in the series has already aired in Japan but, given its huge appeal, Lee said she is hopeful that a second series might be commissioned. 

The recent introduction of the Tumon Night Market has also been well received by Guam companies and Japanese tourists alike, Lee said, with visitors particularly keen to experience local businesses’ offerings and the island’s unique cuisine. 

The night market was launched in August and has proved so successful already that the decision has been taken to extend it into 2026, from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. every Sunday. 

There are, however, still challenges to returning Japan to its former position as the most important source of inbound travelers to Guam, a title it has handed over to tourists from South Korea. 

The weak yen is one unavoidable hurdle, Lee admitted, while there is a broader reluctance to travel abroad among many Japanese since the global coronavirus pandemic, which brought tourism around the world to a screeching halt. And while other nations have seen international travel boom since restrictions were lifted, the recovery in Japan for all overseas markets has been slower and less steep. 

Industry analysts here also point out that many Japanese have not bothered to replace passports that expired during the pandemic and the international situation — from wars in the Middle East and eastern Europe to fears over immigration crackdowns and civil unrest in the United States — have encouraged Japanese to travel domestically instead. 

“What we are experiencing is a hangover from the pandemic, but we believe that over time that desire to travel abroad will come back again and we want to be positioned to meet that need,” Lee said. 

“Guam is in a sweet spot,” she said. “We are just a three-hour flight from Japan and people can easily come for a long weekend.”

And to partly solve the issue of the weak yen, the GVB has rolled out GoGo! Guam Pay and the Guam Hada Adai Bonus schemes to further encourage traveler’s spending. 

The Guam booth at Japan’s most important travel trade show — held this year at the Aichi Sky Expo convention center in Nagoya, the first time the event has been staged in Japan’s fourth-largest city — also showcased the offerings of retail firms, service providers and hotels from the island. 

The vast Village of Donki mall, close to the A. B. Won Pat International Airport, Guam opened three years ago and has quickly become popular as a final shopping stop for departing travelers as well as delivering a wide range of daily products at competitive prices for residents.

“We decided to open an outlet in Guam in 2018, so before the pandemic, to target tourists,” said Uta Miyazawa, head of sales and marketing as well as inbound tourism for Pan Pacific Retail Management, which operates the property.

“Then the coronavirus hit, and we had to completely shift our focus to local customers, which we successfully did,” he said. The food court and restaurants have proved particularly popular, he added. 

“This year we have targeted more tourists, providing free shuttle buses on three routes, and we are confident we offer more choice than other shopping centers in Guam and at a very convenient location,” Miyazawa said. 

Ken Yanagisawa, board director of the GVB and president of PHR Ken Micronesia Inc., expressed optimism that the event taking place in Aichi Prefecture, the home base of motor giant Toyota, will drive interest in Guam as a destination. United Airlines presently operates four flights from the city’s Chubu Centrair International Airport every week.
“Japanese travelers are seeking value and experiences and those are the components that we need to deliver,” he said. “There is a problem around Japanese people spending less due to the domestic economic situation, but we on Guam have to find a way to overcome that challenge.

“But I believe new marketing techniques are going to get that message across and I think the growth we have been seeing can continue,” he added. mbj