(Macau, China) The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) recently presented the Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) with its distinguished PATA Gold award for the “2016 Shop Guam e-Festival Mobile Campaign” in the “Marketing Media – Mobile Travel Application MA” category. PATA’s panel of judges reviewed 220 submissions from 77 organizations and individuals from around the world.

GVB accepted the award at the PATA Gold Awards Luncheon and Presentation on September 15 at the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, which was sponsored by the Macau Government Tourist Office. This year’s awards ceremony attracted more than 800 industry executives from around the Asia Pacific region.

“We are honored to be recognized by PATA for our work with the Shop Guam e-Festival,” said GVB President and CEO Nathan Denight. “Everything we do at the Bureau is for the people of Guam and this award is a testament to the hard work and innovation that our team strives for in promoting Guam to the world.”

The Shop Guam e-Festival was created by GVB in 2012 as the island’s first global marketing campaign and evolved to incorporate the use of “Smart Tourism” through its state of the art mobile technology. The app delivered real-time information on resources, services, and activities to visitors and residents while promoting Guam as a modern, fashionable, and diverse destination to shop.

In Fiscal Year 2016, the festival attracted 300,000 international visitor arrivals and generated more than $15 million worth of media exposure value. Additionally, the festival drew 180 local businesses from Guam to participate in the campaign with a total of 262 special offers.

“Shop Guam is the biggest shopping event in the Western Pacific and having an internationally acclaimed organization, like PATA, recognize the efforts being done to technologically revolutionize this GVB signature event is something our people can be proud of,” said Director of Global Marketing Pilar Laguaña. “We thank PATA for this prestigious award, as well as our industry partners and consumers for contributing to Shop Guam’s success.”

Shop Guam e-Festival will return for its 6th year starting November 10, 2017 through February 28, 2018. The free app is available at the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Media Contact: JOSH TYQUIENGCO - Public Information Officer