The Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) attended the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure show in Long Beach, California, on January 14-15, 2012 to promote the tropical island destination of Guam.

The Los Angeles Travel & Adventure show is in its seventh year with a record attendance of 25,800 travel enthusiasts and travel trade professionals. It was the highest attended travel event in the United States. More than 2,700 travel experts manned the show’s 400-plus exhibit booths. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau was the presenting sponsor, with GVB as supporting sponsor. The show had four stages.

Travel expert, Pauline Frommer, and Travel Channel hosts Andrew Zimmerman and Samantha Brown, charmed an over-capacity crowd eager to listen to their travel stories. Author Patricia Schultz discussed her now second edition, “1,000 Places To See Before you Die,” and CBS News Travel Editor, Peter Greenberg, explained the “New Rules of Travel” to the crowd.

This year’s newest stage had actor, author, and Emmy-award-winning television host, Mark DeCarlo, hosting the new Culinary Stage and the infamous Fiery Food Challenge.

The Global Beats Stage had cultural shows from various destinations, including a standing-room-only crowd for the Kutturan Chamorro Foundation dance and song performance. Guam natives living abroad gladly visited and volunteered at the GVB booth. A round-trip ticket donated by United Airlines was raffled off. Jean Fougner is the happy winner and is planning to visit Guam in March.

According to Unicomm, LLC, the show’s organizers, this year’s show posted a 9,000-person increase in attendance over last year. The average household income of attendees was up 19 percent over the past year’s event, while the average age declined 5.7 years. The majority segment of attendees fell into the 35-55 peak earning years sector with over 48 percent of attendees earning in excess of US$100,000 Annual Household Income (AHI), according to the show’s organizers.