Fiscal Year 2014 was a record-breaking year in visitor arrivals for the US territory Guam, recording over 1.3 million visitors for the second consecutive year and a 40% jump in arrivals from China over last year. 2014 ranks third-best fiscal year in Guam tourism history.

The inaugural ceremony was held at Guam’s A.B. Won Pat International Airport early Wednesday morning with the arrival of flight UA130 from Shanghai. Passengers were welcomed by representatives of United Airlines, Guam Visitors Bureau, Government of Guam officials and Miss Guam. The celebration included a water salute, cultural entertainment by Pa’a Taotao Tano’ and local refreshments.

United Airlines inaugurated nonstop service between its Guam hub and Shanghai, China on October 28, 2014, offering a historic opportunity for Chinese passengers to travel on scheduled flights to Guam and the region, as well as creating a new travel destination for the Guam community. The airline uses Boeing 737-700/800 aircraft to operate the route.

“We are delighted to celebrate the launch of this historic Guam-Shanghai service and add this route to the most comprehensive U.S.-China network,” said Sam Shinohara, United’s managing director, Business Development – Asia/Pacific. “As Guam’s hometown airline, we have been working hard to develop the China market, offering annual charter operations between mainland China and Guam since 2008. We now shift our focus with this scheduled service to build stronger and more sustainable traffic from mainland China to Guam.”

“We’re thrilled that this inaugural flight from Shanghai represents the first ever scheduled service from mainland China to Guam,” said Karl Pangelinan, General Manager of Guam Visitors Bureau. “We’re also delighted to see the fruits of our involvement which helped United to push forward into the China market. We thank United for their partnership and look forward to growing Guam’s number one industry.”

The new nonstop service from Shanghai is on target with the bureau’s Tourism 2020 mission to achieve 1.5 million visitors by 2015 and to incrementally grow visitor arrivals to 2 million by 2020-2023. The bureau is pushing forward by diversifying Guam’s market mix and aggressively targeting the China market.