Chartered flights coming into Palau are being reduced to accommodate other tourism markets.
Minister Charles Obichang of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Industries and Commerce in his Feb. 25 letter notified operators for Mega Maldives Airline, Dynamic Airways, Asian Air and the Palau Pacific Airways “the change in landing frequencies is consistent with our nation’s efforts to promote a healthy and balanced tourist sector”.
These four charter flights service Palau and Hong Kong with the exception of Mega Maldives who also services Macau.
This reduction is in response to President Remengesau’s commitment to develop what the administration envisions as high-value or high-end tourism industry and seems to be the government’s response to the influx of Chinese visitors.
Reducing from the current scheduled charter arrivals from 48 flights this month to a maximum of 32 flights indefinitely, it’s unclear how this reduction would correct this “imbalance” in the tourism market.
In recent month visitors from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have dominated Palau tourism arrivals. And with lack of rooms to accommodate the increasing number of tourists, key markets such as the Republic of China and Japan have declined. Other markets such as European are almost non-existent.
Minister Obichang says the rapid influx from a single market has “squeezed Palau’s hotel capacity and strained infrastructure”. Adding this reduction will also help support airlines that fly regular scheduled flights regardless of the number of its passengers.
The reduction will take effect on April 15, 2015.
