From: The Old Man of Guam
Quiet Beach in Tumon
07:25 a.m.

Hello, I am the "Mere Old Man" from Guam, and I have been involved in the tourism industry on the island of Guam since 1983. I am here to help connect Japan and Guam through tourism. This year, 2023, will be exactly 40 years. In a word, 40 years, many things have happened in Guam.
 

Guam as a tourist destination,
Japanese as tourists

 
In the 1980s, when Japan was in the midst of a bubble economy, Guam was also booming, which is hard to believe today. Even after the bubble burst, Guam became popular among Japanese people as an "inexpensive, short-distance, short-stay" overseas travel destination, and together with promotions featuring Tetsuya Komuro and Ami Suzuki, Guam began attracting one million Japanese tourists a year.
 
However, it has not been all good times: the Gulf War in 1990, the 8.1 magnitude earthquake in the summer of 1993, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the war in Afghanistan that lasted nearly 20 years, the Guinness record typhoons Paka, Ponsona, and Chataan, the major earthquakes in Japan in 1995 and 2011, and the reputational damage of SARS and North Korean missiles. In addition, there have been many events that have shaken Guam's tourism industry, such as the SARS (bird flu) epidemic and the rumors of North Korean missiles.
 
Also, most recently, the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) that lasted for about three years starting in 2020. This brought more serious conditions to Guam than any previous event. Since March of that year, when the state of emergency was declared, the number of foreigners visiting Guam for tourism has been as low as zero.
 
After two years had passed, around the spring of 2022, mitigation measures were taken little by little. The Guam Visitors Bureau was also actively promoting the island, with the Director General himself visiting Japan several times, airing TV commercials, and inviting influencers to Guam.
 
Travel officials on the island of Guam had high hopes for them, but in 2022, 23,539 tourists from Japan visited Guam, compared to 684,802 in 2019, a mere 3.4% (a decrease of about 97%). For those involved, it is this number (and the reality behind it) that suggests a threat, a serious outcome that threatens the future of Guam's tourism industry even more than Corona.
 
Some analysts believe that rising prices and the weak yen, perhaps due to the war between Russia and Ukraine that has been going on since last year, have made it even more difficult for Japanese tourists to visit Guam, but the reality is not that simple.
 
While no one can predict what the year 2023 will bring, Sunny Side Up, an optional tour company in Guam, has already taken the lead in offering marine activities in Guam by resuming parasailing tours more than a year ago, in January 2022, earlier than anywhere else.
 
And indeed, it has become a popular marine activity among tourists from Korea, military, and local Guamites. Now, it has become an indispensable tour in Guam that is close to the locals and can be enjoyed together with marine sports such as snorkeling, banana boating, and jet skiing.
 
Why take such a big risk to resume touring at such a time of year?
 
At the risk of sounding like an afterthought, what I am about to share with you is serious and earnest. There was an enormous amount of data and solid reasons for it.
 
It has been over 20 years now. This research revealed something that no one had paid attention to (or even noticed) until now. An analysis of data from major travel agencies that handle overseas travel revealed that parasailing was the most popular optional tour among tourists visiting Guam.
 

Can you believe that parasailing is the most popular activity on Guam?

I can't believe that such a goofy option is the most popular. You know why?

 
No analyst or marketer has yet been able to properly analyze the reasons for this. But sure enough, when we checked the numbers again, we found that parasailing is more popular than any other optional tour, and by an order of magnitude.
 

It is pulled, but it feels like it is dangling, a very strange floating sensation.

 
We work very hard every day to maintain the boat so that our customers can enjoy parasailing safely. Every day we are filled with joy as we look up at our guests floating in the clear blue Guam sky and see their flushed faces when they return to their boats.
 
We are sometimes asked by local acquaintances, “What's so fun about parasailing?”.
 
We, who are enjoying every day in the great nature of Guam in the everlasting summer, are blackened with joy, but when we are asked again like that, we honestly think, “What? What is it?”.
 
When you put it that way, I can't find a definitive phrase for this.
 

The more headwind the higher you can fly.

 
I often ask my customers about it, and they all say “Wow!”, but they are not able to express their feelings in words (laugh).
 
In the human brain, there is a region in the language center of the cerebral cortex called the "language area" that is responsible for the understanding and expression of language. Similarly, there is a region involved in sensation called the "sensory cortex".
 
Perhaps it is because I am feeling something outside of the part of me that controls language, or perhaps it is because I am not able to explain it in terms of “this is why it was fun”.

From a height of 80 meters, the 360-degree view of Guam is spectacular, make your next trip will make your next trip all the more special.

 
Somewhere along the way, you may have asked yourself, "Are you a right-brainer? Or left-brained?”. You may have heard this question before, haven't you?
 
I took the opportunity to do a little research.
 
The left brain is responsible for language, calculation skills, and logical thinking. The right brain is responsible for recognizing and organizing information as knowledge. It is also involved in memory, but since the brain is primarily responsible for language and numerical processing, memory brain power is inferior to that of the right brain.
 
In contrast, the right brain is responsible for imagery, memory, imagination and inspiration. It is responsible for the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, and controls emotions. It is through the right brain that we recognize differences in sounds and colors, and are moved by things.
 
The right brain is responsible for recognizing and organizing information as images. The overwhelming difference between it and the left brain is its memory capacity. Both the right and left brains organize and store things, but the right brain can process thousands of times more information than the left brain by storing them in images.
 
The right side of the brain is active during childhood, around the age of three, when language is still undeveloped. As the child grows up, the left brain, which is responsible for language, gradually becomes more active, and the left brain becomes dominant.
 
It is said that as we get older, our brains become "stiff," but this was caused by our usual left-brain-dominant lifestyle. As we grow older, it is important to use the right side of our brains to activate our brains.
 

If you are a solo traveler
If you as a couple
If you with friends
If you with your parents, children and three generations

For parasailing Just by gently swaying, a special trip that will remain in your memory.