LOS ANGELES, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Pacific island of Guam saw a record number of tourist arrivals and the arrival of more South Korean visitors despite an escalating verbal war between the United State and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
According to a joint release from the Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) and the Office of the Governor published Tuesday, in the fiscal year ending last month, more than 1.5 million people visited Guam, up 3.2 percent against the previous fiscal year, setting a new record of tourist arrivals.
Despite the record increase, tourists from Japan dropped sharply, the Guam Daily Post reported, quoting GVB Chief Executive and President Nate Denight as saying that almost all the school groups from Japan and a number of meeting attendees canceled their planned trips since August.
However, South Korean arrivals to Guam in September rose by more than 30 percent year-on-year, Denight said.
Guam became a focus amid heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang this summer. The DPRK military once said it would accomplish a strike program against Guam in mid-August, as a response to U.S. President Donald Trump's stern warning to the DPRK earlier.
Guam is a U.S. territory situated in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean, with 160,000 residents.
