To encourage the further growth of the hotel industry, the Guam Economic Development Authority will continue providing tax breaks for new hotels until at least 2022.
The agency has decided to extend its special hotel qualifying certificate program for two years and these qualifying certificates provide tax breaks to hotel developers for up to 20 years to construct new hotels or make a large investment into a current facility.
This decision was made to support the Guam Visitors Bureau’s Tourism 2020 strategic plan, which includes constructing 1,600 hotel rooms to accommodate the island’s growing tourism market and welcome two million visitors.
Currently, the Tsubaki Tower is the only new hotel benefitting from a qualifying certificate and brings Guam 340 rooms closer to GVB’s goal.
Ricky Hernandez, GEDA Deputy Administrator, said: “With Guam experiencing its highest number of tourist arrivals in history — at one point, it was 1.6 million in the last fiscal year — it’s important to see how we can develop that part of our economy.”
The limit for the tax benefits provided by the special qualifying certificates is 10 percent of the hotel construction costs.
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