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IGLTA Foundation’s new NYC think tank to address key issues in LGBTQ+ Tourism

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The International LGBTQ+ Travel Association Foundation (IGLTAF) inaugural Leadership Think Tank will unite top executives from LGBTQ+ welcoming destinations around the globe at Google during IGLTA’s 36th Annual Global Convention in New York City this April. The invitation-only discussion will focus on responsible tourism through the lens of LGBTQ+ welcoming travel and is presented with support from Miles Partnership and Google.


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“IGLTA strives to continuously drive the conversations around LGBTQ+ travel to reflect our ever-evolving industry,” said IGLTA President/CEO John Tanzella. “We’re proud that IGLTAF has assembled for this important dialogue such an influential group of industry veterans from destinations and organizations that value our LGBTQ+ travel community.”

The Leadership Think Tank, organized in collaboration with NYC & Company and NYU’s Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, will include leaders from Destination Canada, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, Cape Town Tourism, Destination DC, Italy National Tourist Board, Visit Dallas, Destination Niagara USA, Bermuda Tourism Authority, Discover Puerto Rico, Embratur (Brazil), Visit California, Milano Smart City Association, Greater Boston CVB, Destinations International, Tourism Madrid, Guam Visitors Bureau, U.S. Travel Association, Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB, Barcelona Tourism, Visit Salt Lake City, Thailand Tourism, and Greater Miami CVB.

“Accepting a seat at the leadership table during this invitation-only roundtable is important to affirm Bermuda’s position as a welcoming destination to all travelers, including the LGBTQ+ visitors,” said Kevin Dallas, CEO of the Bermuda Tourism Authority. “We applaud the IGLTA Foundation’s role in convening such diverse destinations to discuss critical issues facing the industry.”

A white paper from the session will be provided to the trade press and IGLTA’s global membership that focuses on five topics:
• Addressing issues of destination overcrowding as it impacts LGBTQ + travelers
• Analyzing the differences between LGBTQ+ travel niches and integration of LGBTQ+ travelers into the “mainstream”
• Diversifying LGBTQ+ products and services
• Examining cultural perspectives that impact LGBTQ+ tourism
• Discussing the challenges facing LGBTQ+ business owners in emerging destinations

“It’s a privilege to work with IGLTAF and to be a part of this special event, which is pondering some of the key forward-looking issues facing travel and tourism,” said U.S. Travel Association President/CEO Roger Dow. “This will be a terrific lineup engaging one of the most valuable practices we can undertake as an industry: anticipating and planning for challenges, which will better enable us to sustain our strength as an economic engine and job creator.”

Daniela Wagner, Group Business Development Director, Jacobs Media Group & Director EMEA, Pacific Asia Travel Association, and Fred Mayo, MBA, PhD, CHE, CHT, Founder, Mayo Consulting Services and Clinical Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, NYU, will co-moderate the Leadership Think Tank.

The 36th Annual IGLTA Global Convention would not be possible without the generous support of our convention sponsors: Presenting Level – NYC & Company, Delta Air Lines, Disney Destinations©, Italian National Tourist Board; Official Level – AIG Travel, Inc., Airbnb, Guam Visitors Bureau, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Italian National Tourist Board, Malta Tourism Authority, Visit Philadelphia®; Conference Level – Inprotur Argentina, Visit Britain, VisitDallas, International Experience Canada/Government of Canada, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Miles Partnership, Q.Digital, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, Visit West Hollywood.

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Strong interest in Guam grows at travel fair in Malaysia

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GVB

Guam continues to generate strong interest in Malaysia and was one of the newer and popular destinations featured at the country’s top consumer travel fair.

The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair is a bi-annual travel fair that ran from March 15-17, 2019 in Kuala Lumpur. Over 1,300 booths took up about 95,000 feet of exhibition space in seven halls at the Putra World Trade Centre. Guam was among the 272 organizations that were present to include travel and tour agencies, national tourism organizations, hotels, resorts, theme parks, cruises and other businesses. Organizers estimated this year’s fair to exceed over 110,000 visitors and sales of over $51 million. This is Guam’s second time having a presence at the event.

Mayor Robert Hofmann, committee chairman of the Guam Visitors Bureau’s North America and Pacific Market, noted that as an emerging market for Guam, Malaysian visitors are intrigued they can travel to the island visa-free.

“I think there’s huge interest in Guam from not only the Malaysia population, but also people that travel to Malaysia from countries like Singapore, the Middle East, and India,” said Hofmann. “It’s great to see they’re excited about Guam. It’s exotic to them and it’s a new destination they’re looking forward to seeing. They don’t know much about our history, but they are a culture similar to ours. We should start to learn more about their culture because we have so many commonalities and could retrace some of our steps to Southeast Asia where the CHamoru people came from.”
GVB
North America and Pacific Marketing Manager Mark Manglona conducts a Guam product presentation to Philippine Airlines and travel agents in Malaysia.
GVB
Team Guam takes a group photo at the Guam booth in the 2019 MATTA Fair.
GVB
A look at some of the 1,300 booths that were at the 2019 MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur.


A culture at the forefront

Fairgoers witnessed multiple performances from Guma Taotao Tano at the three-day event as they shared Guam’s unique CHamoru culture through song and dance.

“Malaysia is a very rich cultural place,” said Guma Taotao Tano musician Vince San Nicolas. “I believe that our 4,000-year-old history is vital to share with them in person. Bringing out the re-identification and resurgence of the CHamoru culture is very important to share with the rest of the world so that we’re known as the CHamorus from Guam and the Marianas.”

Airline and travel agents create Guam packages

While in Kuala Lumpur, GVB met with Philippine Airlines and other travel agents for a Guam product presentation to further develop the Malaysia market.

Philippine Air offered special fares from Malaysia to Guam via Manila during the MATTA Fair.  Travel agents, such as Apple Vacations and Golden Tourworld Travel,  have also been promoting six-day packages to Guam.  The agents have already confirmed Guam is scheduled to welcome group travelers from Malaysia in the coming months.

“We’ve been making great leads and strides in promoting Guam in the region,” said GVB North America and Pacific Marketing Manager Mark Manglona. “We’ve developed key partnerships with travel agents who have put up all-inclusive travel packages and we also have a very good relationship with Philippine Airlines. They’ve been very supportive and connected us with travel agents.  There is a tremendous opportunity to promote Guam in Malaysia and we look forward to growing and developing this new market.”

The next MATTA Fair will be in September 2019.

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CEO Pilar Laguana is fantastic news for Guam Tourism

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Pilar Laguana, an international tourism veteran, is now in charge of the Guam Visitors Bureau. She thinks out of the box, she has a global mindset, and she is a prominent figure in the global travel and tourism industry.

The new president and CEO, Pilar Laguana, was appointed on February 15, 2018 to lead the most important industry in the U.S. territory – Guam. She took over from former GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight

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The GVB Board of Directors unanimously voted Pilar Laguana as the new head of the agency. Board members also confirmed her nomination for Bobby Alvarez to serve as her Vice President.

The board could have not made a better decision.

Previously Ms. Pilar Laguaña has been the Marketing Manager of Guam Visitors Bureau since May 1987. She managed to position Guam as a major global travel and tourism destination.

Pilar always reached out to global markets. Her recent effort to include LGBT travelers to visit Guam was the first for Guam and well received.

Her tourism career began in 1977 as the first candidate under the GVB Management Promotions Internship Program.

Over the years, Ms. Laguaña advanced through the ranks of Promotions Specialist for various markets until she was promoted to Deputy General Manager in 1982. Five years later, she opted to continue her career as the bureau’s marketing manager.

In her role as manager, Ms. Laguaña is responsible for the establishment, overall planning, development, implementation, coordination and supervision of all the bureau’s worldwide marketing and promotional activities.

As a team player with skilled organizational, managerial, analytical and supervisory skills, Ms. Laguaña played a key role in opening up the Korea market in the early 1980s and consistent growth of international markets including Japan, Taiwan, North America/Canada, Hong Kong, Philippines, Micronesia, Australia, Europe, and China.

Ms. Laguaña is an active member of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), which awarded her the prestigious PATA Award of Merit in 2009.

She is currently serving a second term as chairman of the National Tour Association’s (NTA) Leadership Team China Task Force. She also holds the longest tenure in the PATA Micronesia Chapter, in which she serves as the organization’s Marketing Committee Co-Chair.

She is a 2011 charter member of the Hawaii Pacific Export Council (also referred to as the District Export).

Ms. Laguaña has earned the Outstanding Young Woman of America award three times, and has been awarded several other honors including being named the Institute of Japanese Studies Awardee, receiving a Guam Legislation Resolution in recognition of her involvement in the research and production of the Jack DeMell Music & Legends of Guam, and being named a Governor of Guam Honorary Ambassador-at-Large.

Her past experience within the tourism industry includes work within the Travel Industry Association (TIA), terms on the editorial board of the Guam Hotel & Restaurant Association (GHRA) and the GHRA Public Relations & Marketing Committee.

Ms. Laguaña acquired her high school and college education in Hawaii and also pursued her professional Japanese language and cultural training from The Tokyo School of Japanese Language – Institute for Research in Linguistic Culture, (Tokyo, Japan).

Guam achieves best Calendar Year with 1.55M visitors welcomed in 2018

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The Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) is proud to announce that Guam welcomed 1.55 million visitors in 2018, the best Calendar Year in the island’s history.

December 2018 finished off the year strong by welcoming 146,104 visitors to our island shores. This represents a 3.7% growth over the previous year, making December 2018 the best month in our islands tourism history by beating the previous record of 145,817 visitors that was set in August 2018.

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This growth in arrivals is directly related to the overall increase in available seats to Guam. There were around 982 flights for the month of December 2018 with 197,228 seats available, a 5.68% increase when compared to the 186,634 seats reported in December 2017.

“We congratulate everyone in the tourism industry for pushing through 2018 with fantastic results and welcoming 1.55 million visitors to our island paradise,” said GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight. “We have much to look forward to in this new year as we grow and diversify in our source markets, share our Chamoru culture and work to welcome 1.6 million visitors in 2019.”

The Japan market’s recovery also continues, with Japan arrivals jumping 27.24% in December 2018 when compared to the previous year. Korea arrivals for the month decreased 8.9% due to the reduction in seats with airline carriers such as Korean Air and Jeju Air. However, Year-to-Date arrivals for Korea continues to show strong growth ending the year +9% vs. 2017.

Other markets that showed growth in December include Taiwan by 6.8%, the U.S. by 6.8%, Hong Kong by 17.1%, and the Russia Federation by 25.3%.

The success of the airline incentive program from GVB and the Guam International Airport Authority (GIAA) continues to attract more seats to Guam. In December, United added four more flights a week between Guam and Nagoya. T’way also began its Nagoya-Guam service on December 29 and will run through October 2019. More than 130,000 seats on 700 charter flights are scheduled for Calendar Year 2019.

December 2018 Preliminary Arrival Summary (click)

PATA Micronesia Chapter: New Board of Directors and Chairs

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This past month marked the end of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Micronesia Chapter’s directorship for 2017 – 2018. For the past four years (two-year consecutive terms), Pilar Laguaña has led the Micronesia Chapter as the Chairwoman alongside Vice Chairman Bermance Aldis, Secretary Faustina Marugg, Treasurer Judy Torres, and alternate Board Member Paula Monk.

The Chapter has five executive standing committees – (1) Marketing, (2) Membership, (3) Education, (4) Culture, Heritage & Environment and (5) Public Relations. Chairman Mark Manglona and Vice Chairman Kadoi Ruluked led the Marketing Committee; Chairwoman Barbara Taitano led the Membership Committee; Chairman Casey Jeszenka led the Education Committee; Chairwoman FaustinaMarugg and Vice Chairman Don Evans led the Culture, Heritage and Environment Committee; and Chairwoman Catherine Perry led the Public Relations Committee.

Each board member and committee leader took an active role in trying to achieve PATA Micronesia’s mission, which is “to assist in the development of our regional tourism industry with strategies that are environmentally sensitive, respect Micronesian cultures, adhere to high operational standards and provide an opportunity for education, training and gainful employment among the resident populations of our Micronesian membership.” The chapter successfully held tri-annual meetings throughout various islands of Micronesia; held co-sponsor tourism-related training, workshops and seminars; and worked to solicit United Airlines for complimentary or discounted airfare for the trainer(s), speaker(s) or presenter(s), among many other responsibilities.

Collectively, they have done an outstanding job over the past four years considering where the Chapter is today. The members would like to take this opportunity to thank their outgoing leaders for their hard work, dedication, innovative ideas, strategic thinking, and most especially their valuable efforts and commitment to improving the region of Micronesia.

At this time, the PATA Micronesia Chapter is pleased to announce and welcome their incoming Board of Directors and Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs for 2019 – 2020. Let us welcome Chairwoman Stephanie Nakamura, Immediate Past-Chairwoman Pilar Laguaña, Vice Chairwoman Paula Monk, Secretary Marstella Jack, Treasurer Mark Manglona and Alternate Board Member Perdus Ehsa Jr. who will lead the Chapter from January 1, 2019 – December 31, 2020. Additionally, let us also welcome Marketing Chairwoman Lori DeBrum and Vice Chairman Luciano Abraham; Membership Committee Chairwoman Lou Aguon-Schulte and Vice Chairwoman Vicotria Blas-Toves; Education Committee Chairwoman Denise Mendiola and Vice

Chairman Don Evans; Culture, Heritage & Environment Committee Chairwoman Rita Nauta and Vice Chairwoman Sandra Okada; and lastly, Public Relations Committee Chairwoman Judy Torres and Vice Chairwoman Catherine Perry.

The PATA Micronesia Chapter would like to express their gratitude to United Airlines for their continued support with airfare and for all instructors who volunteered to provide educational training from 2015 – 2018. The Chapter will forge ahead to continue promoting tourism to and from the beautiful islands of Micronesia!