Palau tackles over-tourism with responsible tourism

Accord­ing to Repub­lic of Palau Pres­id­ent Tommy E Remen­gasau, Jr, in his intro­duct­ory mes­sage for the Palau Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy Frame­work 2017 – 2021 (PDF 3 MB), Palau will com­bine “tra­di­tion­al know­ledge with innov­at­ive man­age­ment and best prac­tices to present Palau as a spe­cial des­tin­a­tion to be respec­ted, under­stood, and highly valued”.

Nowhere in the Pres­id­ent’s mes­sage, nor any­where else in the 45-page Frame­work, is the trend­ing buzzword “over-tour­ism” used. The key words here are “highly val­ued”, which are echoed by Umiich Sen­ge­bau, Min­is­ter, Nat­ur­al Resources, Envir­on­ment and Tour­ism, in his fore­word to the Framework:

To achieve long-term industry prof­it­ab­il­ity and sus­tain­ab­il­ity, Palau must con­sist­ently deliv­er the Pristine Para­dise our vis­it­ors expect while facil­it­at­ing eco­nom­ic growth. This requires a shift from the unman­aged approach to tour­ism devel­op­ment that has char­ac­ter­ized the sec­tor thus far. It requires that we embrace and embark on a strategy that invests in high-value growth instead of high-volume growth.

As a reformed addict might tell you, the first step to over­com­ing a prob­lem such as over-tour­ism is acknow­ledging you have a prob­lem. In 2015, when reports of a back­lash against Chinese tour­ists emerged from Palau, Pres­id­ent Remenge­sau told report­ers: “Do we want to con­trol growth or do we want growth to con­trol us? It will be irre­spons­ible for me as a lead­er if this trend con­tin­ues. I am not only look­ing at the present but, as a lead­er, I am look­ing after tomorrow.”

If the Palau Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy Frame­work 2017 – 2021 is any indic­a­tion, Palau has quickly learned from its brush with mass tour­ism. And it is unafraid to describe what it exper­i­enced, how it happened, and why it should not be tol­er­ated in future:

Before 2014, Palau’s tour­ism industry was driv­en largely by high­er spend­ing con­sumer seg­ments dom­in­ated by the diving mar­ket. In 2014 and 2015, a dra­mat­ic spike in pack­aged travel groups from the Peoples Repub­lic of China (PRC) changed the nature of the tour­ism exper­i­ence in Palau. This shift into mass-mar­ket tour­ism has been driv­en by ver­tic­ally integ­rated pack­age tours, bring­ing vis­it­ors who have pre­paid their full itin­er­ary, res­ult­ing in lower in-coun­try vis­it­or spend­ing. Addi­tion­ally, the dom­in­ance of a single source mar­ket, largely con­sist­ing of first-time trav­el­ers and the entry of numer­ous new, inex­per­i­enced tour oper­at­ors into the tour­ism sec­tor have strained the capa­city of reg­u­lat­ory and man­age­ment bod­ies to ensure that tour­ism in Palau is both prof­it­able and sustainable.

Issues stem­ming from errat­ic air ser­vice sched­ules, a pro­lif­er­a­tion of charter flights, and a lack of trans­par­ency in air­port oper­a­tions have chal­lenged Palau’s tour­ism sec­tor to tar­get and receive desired vis­it­or mar­kets via con­sist­ently sched­uled air service.

Hotel devel­op­ment pro­jects aimed to ser­vice the low-end pack­aged trav­el­er have cluttered the mar­ket and degraded Palau’s pristine brand. To make mat­ters worse, Palau’s iden­tity as an exclus­ive world-class diving des­tin­a­tion is erod­ing, due to sig­ni­fic­ant over­crowding at key sites.

Resolv­ing these issues is cru­cial. Res­ol­u­tion will require the polit­ic­al will of the ROP gov­ern­ment and a coordin­ated industry. The Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy out­lines the way for­ward. We must all pull togeth­er to imple­ment needed solutions.

Polit­ic­al will and a determ­in­a­tion to inter­vene and dis­rupt and reg­u­late the free mar­ket with (hope­fully) the sup­port of a “coordin­ated industry”. Fantastic!

How­ever, this rhet­or­ic must be matched by policy, and it is here too that Palau appears to be strong. For example, here are the four sens­ible policy object­ives that are inten­ded to meet Goal 2: “Vis­it­or-to-res­id­ent ratio reflects sus­tain­able car­ry­ing capacity”:

• Object­ive 2.1 Sus­tain­able car­ry­ing capa­city ranges are estab­lished, determ­in­ing accept­able levels of envir­on­ment­al, cul­tur­al, and com­munity impacts.
• Object­ive 2.2 Air­line access is closely aligned with car­ry­ing capa­city, accom­mod­a­tion stock, and tar­geted markets.
• Object­ive 2.3 User fees levied appro­pri­ately assist in reduc­tion of low-end markets.
• Object­ive 2.4 Strengthened vis­it­or com­mu­nic­a­tion and out­reach ensures that all vis­it­ors are provided with clear and com­pel­ling inform­a­tion about respect­ful, appro­pri­ate beha­vi­or and envir­on­ment­al dos and don’ts.

The Frame­work is also firm on the import­ance and value of niche tour­ism markets:

[Niche tour­ism mar­kets] sup­port value growth over volume growth, tar­get a more engaged trav­el­er who seeks new, authen­t­ic exper­i­ences as opposed to low-budget sun-and-sea mass tour­ism. […] Niche tour­ism has the poten­tial to enhance the com­pet­it­ive­ness of des­tin­a­tions, diver­si­fy its product offer­ings, gen­er­ate high­er yields per vis­it­or, and cre­ate more jobs for loc­als. Examples of niche mar­kets include nature-based tour­ism, cul­tur­al her­it­age tour­ism, culin­ary tour­ism, agri-tour­ism, sports tour­ism, wed­dings and hon­ey­moons, and adven­ture tourism.

This interest in niche mar­kets is reflec­ted in policy object­ives designed to meet Goal 3: “Diverse, high-value, low-impact con­sumer seg­ments are the core of Palau’s vis­it­or industry”:

• Object­ive 3.1 The devel­op­ment of accom­mod­a­tions, ser­vices, and exper­i­ences that meet the mar­ket demands and expect­a­tions of high-value vis­it­ors such as Free Inde­pend­ent Trav­el­ers (FITs) and tar­geted niche mar­kets such as bird­ing, soft adven­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, private cruis­ing, eco­tour­ism, etc., is prioritized.
• Object­ive 3.2 Mar­ket­ing activ­it­ies focus on a vari­ety of high-per­form­ing, niche and diverse geo­graph­ic source mar­kets in pur­suit of highest-value cus­tom­ers — those who stay the longest and spend the most.

Pub­lished in Decem­ber 2016, the Palau Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy Frame­work 2017 – 2021 sets six targets/goals from which key policy object­ives and meas­ur­able out­comes flow. Col­lect­ively they pos­i­tion Palau’s tour­ism industry as a com­munity-driv­en nation­al pri­or­ity that is respons­ibly man­aged accord­ing to a sus­tain­able car­ry­ing capa­city of diverse, high-value, low-impact trav­el­lers who come to exper­i­ence the authen­t­ic and alive Pristine Para­dise brand.

So as seni­or fig­ures pre­pare for the grandly-named UNWTO & WTM Min­is­ters’ Sum­mit, will they, like Palau, take the issue of “over-tour­ism” ser­i­ously? Are they, in their own des­tin­a­tions, will­ing to meddle with the free mar­ket? Are they pre­pared to spe­cify a car­ry­ing capa­city tar­get for their des­tin­a­tions and aim for it? Will they con­sider meas­ures that dis­crim­in­ate against low-budget trav­el­lers and all-inclus­ive tours? Will they favour small loc­al tour­ism busi­nesses over large mul­tina­tion­al tour­ism businesses?

Thanks to a lead­er who claims to be “look­ing after tomor­row” and a policy frame­work that uses the lan­guage of sus­tain­ab­il­ity and respons­ib­il­ity, tack­ling and pre-empt­ing over-tour­ism is all to be done in Palau. And, for Palauans’ sake, hope­fully it will be.

Fea­tured image: A scat­ter­ing of islands in Palau. By Lux­Ton­nerre (CC BY 2.0) via Wiki­me­dia.

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Palau Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy Frame­work 2017 – 2021 (PDF 3 MB)

Palau Respons­ible Tour­ism Policy Frame­work 2017 – 2021 (PDF 3 MB)