Wearing an N95 mask and face shield, Jimmy Lin hauled his bag full of instant noodles and beach gear from Guam's modest airport >a recent afternoon.

“It feels a bit surreal to be here,” said the 37-year-old Taiwanese, who owns a ski resort in Japan that he hasn't visited since early 2020 due to travel restrictions. “I used to travel abroad at least every couple of months, and suddenly the world shut me down.”

Like thousands of Asian tourists who have visited this American outpost in the Pacific since early July, Lin was in Guam to receive his preferred coronavirus vaccinations - doses of Pfizer messenger RNA - as part of a vaccine tourism initiative designed to offset losses from the pandemic.

Although more and more tourism-dependent countries, such as Italy and Thailand, are recognizing vaccination records for travel, holidays abroad they are still closed to millions of unvaccinated people. But there is Guam, a US territory with ample vaccine supplies and no quarantine restrictions, where more than 80% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. For residents of Taiwan, South Korea, and other countries,three weeks on a tropical island plus the chance to get a double dose equals an opportunity they can't always get at home due to supply shortages and problems access.

“I'm a vaccine snob,” said Lin, who got his first vaccination with Pfizer on Aug. 3 through the “vacation and vaccination” program. ”, or AirV&V, sponsored by the Guam government, paying $100 for a dose. “Here in Guam I can choose the vaccine I want at an affordable price, but back in Taiwan, all I could do was wait for what became available, who knows when.”

Around the world, places dependent on tourism have come up with creative ideas to try to revive businesses devastated by the pandemic. Some have tried to attract digital nomads or allowed visitors to self-quarantine inside resorts. Others have tried travel bubbles that have collapsed when new outbreaks have emerged.

And while Guam's AirV&V initiative can only redeem a small part of lost tourist dollars - more than 1.6 million international visitors graced these shores in 2019 - the companies say it's worth a try.

“Since the AirV&V program, we have started to see an increase in international guests from Taiwan, Korea and Japan,” said Honoka Yamazaki, a planning manager at the high-rise Tsubaki Tower. range, adding that room reservations and sales increased compared to last year.

Some 2,000 visitors from Taiwan, where only 4% of people are fully vaccinated, have visited Guam since the first chartered flight on July 6, according to Taiwan's Lion Travel, which operates groups tours to Guam and Palau.

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Tourists who get vaccinated book their shots online and usually receive them at a kiosk in the tourist center of Tumon, where the hotels and luxury shops are located. Tech companies such as TSMC, the world's largest chipmaker, have booked group tours for their employees, who arrive on chartered flights and stay at a handful of AirV&V-designated hotels. .

Shopping malls and restaurants in Guam's major tourist areas have reopened in recent weeks as residents have been vaccinated. And now, the modest influx of tourists is encouraging other businesses to follow suit. To keep up the flow, Guam authorities have proposed giving a $500 shopping coupon to AirV&V vacationers.

“Full recovery can take a long time, but bringing tourists back is a vital start to that recovery,” said Anna Kao, owner of Ocean Villa, beachfront, in Tamuning, a town adjacent to Tumon. Her guesthouse, which had to close for months in 2020 after a lockdown, reopened before Christmas and has seen more visitors from Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines since July.

But even here, 1,500 miles from Tokyo and 4,000 miles from Hawaii, the pandemic is never far away.

As soon as the Guam authorities eased restrictions in the middle of the year,coronavirus cases began to rise again in August. Local government on Monday reinstated mask mandates and social distancing guidelines. US military installations - including the Guam Naval Base and Andersen Air Force Base - have also re-imposed mask requirements. Restaurants now require proof of vaccination for customers who come to dine in and have intensified controls.

“The pandemic, as you can see, is not going anywhere anytime soon,” said Brandon Kinsella, project coordinator for the AirV&V. But, he said, "there will always be a need for vaccines and a travel market ." Guam, like the rest of the United States, will roll out booster shots in the coming weeks.

The new wave of infections has taken some of the excitement away from visitors yearning for a sun-and-beach holiday. Some groups of Taiwanese visiting Guam for vaccinations are opting to self-quarantine in their hotel rooms, leaving only to eat.

“I don't want to catch it when I come to get vaccinated against the virus,” said Richard Chang, a recent retiree from Taipei who had just after receiving his second injection of Moderna at the Hyatt Regency Guam and clutching his arm as directed by a local Mandarin-speaking guide.

Guam has suffered other crises before, and finally recovered.

Accompanying his fiancée for a three-week vacation and vaccination, Shin Hee-seok, a South Korean academic, said the delta variant reminded him of the North Korean missile threat to Guam in 2017, which scared many visitors and sent prices of flights and hotels plummeting.

“South Koreans have overcome their fear of North Korean missile threats and are now learning to live with the coronavirus,” said Shin, an international law researcher at Yonsei University in Seoul .

South Korea, one of the main sources of tourists to the island, is registering more than 1,000 infections a day. And while the outbreak in Guam -- population 170,000 -- is small compared to elsewhere, tourists getting vaccinated face other, more mundane concerns.

“I've done everything that's still open to tourists, from shooting and hiking to water skiing, kayaking, scuba diving and surfing,” said Lin, the Taiwanese resort owner, the night before returning home at the end of August, fully vaccinated, and in mandatory two-week quarantine.

“For someone used to city life, Guam seems like paradise, but only for the first week or two. If I were to spend more time here, I would probably get bored”.

* Alicia Chen in Taipei contributed to this report.

(C) The Washington Post.-