Palau’s established higher end tourism markets continue to decline as the Chinese package tours dominate the market that was up 516% in February 2015.
The lucrative Japanese market was down by nearly 32% along with the Korean Market that was down nearly 30%. Australia and Germany were both down over 35% with other Europe down nearly 32%.
Tour operators have stated that the lack of rooms due to charter flights is to blame.
While the Chinese charters are driving the overall number of tourists up over 60% the actual financial growth is closer to 5% signaling that something is seriously wrong with the current tourism structure.
Many established businesses in Palau who cater to the traditional markets are feeling the crunch as they are reporting revenue drops from 10 to 25%.
The impacts of this dramatic shift in Palau’s tourism are yet to be fully realized but there is no doubt that the economy is quickly shifting to be controlled by Chinese tourism.