[Coral-List] support Palau's leadership in coral-reef management

Charles Birkeland charlesb at hawaii.edu
Thu Aug 23 22:24:01 UTC 2018


Until late last year, tourists from the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
made up nearly half the visitors to Palau.  Then in a move to force Palau
to cut diplomatic ties to Taiwan, PRC abruptly banned tour groups visiting
Palau from China.  According to Reuters news August 5, this has caused
“empty hotel rooms, idle tour boats and shuttered travel agencies” in
Koror. Palauans, typical of their wise and gracious character, believe
their role is to manage their resources well and host visitors from
anywhere who wish to respectfully experience Palau’s beautiful environment.
I believe they do not feel it is their role to be involved in decisions on
a “one China policy”.

This may actually be an unexpected opportunity to set things on a better
course. I do not wish to stereotype people, but a major portion of tourists
from PRC have been inexperienced snorkelers in large groups that have
proven difficult to prevent from harming natural habitats. Now that PRC has
effectively banned Palau as a destination for tour groups from mainland
China, this gives Palau an opportunity to replace “cattle cars” of mass
tourism with fewer but higher-spending visitors coming with a few friends,
family, in couples, or alone. The few higher-spending visitors often spend
money locally and are easier to manage and are usually better able to
experience reefs without harming them.  The package deals for mass tourism
are made in China and while in Palau they tend to patronize Chinese-owned
hotels and restaurants. This limits the economic benefits of such visitors,
while Palau’s reefs feel the stress and the burdens on Palau’s utilities
such as water, power and sewage are increased.  For sustainability of their
reefs, and perhaps for more direct revenue, President of Palau Tommy
Remengesau Jr. is “determined to seek the policy of quality”, rather than
“quantity” (Reuters, Farah Master, August 5).

Diving photographers and quality sport divers used to be a major part of
the tourists in Palau, but the mass tourism packages from PRC reserved much
of the hotels. The Japanese travel agencies became frustrated with the
difficulty in obtaining rooms for their clients and seem to have lost
interest in Palau. Now is a perfect time to encourage Japanese, Australian,
American and other divers respectful of the reefs. Please take this
opportunity to support Palau’s exemplary leadership and encourage quality
divers to fill the void left by PRC. Let’s aid Palau in replacing mass
packaged tourism that spends the money in China and stresses Palau’s
resources with higher-spending individuals, couples or small groups that
spend locally and treat the reefs respectfully.

!n 2016, I saw coconut crab, giant clams, and reef fishes on the menu in a
major Chinese restaurant in Koror. I believe the biology of these resources
will lead them to depletion if made available to over 160,000 visitors.

I hope we can turn a threatening economic lever into a benefit for Palau by
replacing the mass package tourists from China with higher-spending
tourists from elsewhere. This would be better for Palau’s resources,
utilities and public if comparable revenues can be generated.  Let us all
support Palau’s continuing strong leadership in managing their resources
and help them reach a quality audience.

Chuck


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