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On April 03, 2009 Palau Visitors Authority Marketing & Research Manager, Ms. Yumie Morishita with Palau Delegation attended the 17th Annual Japan Marine Diving Fair in Tokyo, Japan. Palau has been consistently attending the fair over the years as Japan is one of Palau's major tourism market and during the three day event the Palau Delegation agressively promoted Palau as a Choice Tourist Destination. This year the total number of visitors to the 3 day Marine Diving Fair was at all time high totaling 51,825 people as compared to the previous years.
The Marine Dive Fair officially opened to the public with a cutting ribbon ceremony in the morning and by the afternoon there was the awarding ceremony of the people's choice award for best destination, resorts and dive operator, etc. Palau received the following awards:
- 2nd Prize for BEST DIVING AREAS: OVERSEAS
(1st Prize is Maldives & 3rd Prize is Philippines)
- 2nd Prize for BEST DREAMING AREA: OVERSEAS
(1st Prize is Maldives & 3rd Prize is French Polynesia)
PVA was honored to have Senator Alfonso N. Diaz, Chairman of the Tourism Committee, receive the two awards for Palau.
- PALAU PACIFIC RESORT: 1st Prize for BEST DIVING RESORT, Overseas
(9 years Consecutive)
- PALAU SPORT: 1st Prize for BEST LIVE-ABOARD, Overseas
(9 years Consecutive)
It has been the goal for Palau Visitors Authority and members of the Belau Tourism Association to do a Road Show to visit Japan's major cities to promote Palau. In June of 2008 the first Palau Road Show in Japan began after attending the 16th Marine Diving Fair. The road show enabled local travel agents in each city to establish cooperative efforts to promote Palau as The Choice Tourist Destination. The Roadshow is a joint marketing and PR efforts between Continental Airlines Japan, Palau Visitors Authority, and the Palau tour operators and hoteliers.The positive feedback from 2008 Road Show encouraged Palau Delegation to do another in 2009.
This year 2009 a total of 14 local tour operators and hoteliers joined the Roadshow (last year 10 participants). A total of 380 travel agents were invited an increase of 40% compared to last year of 271. Currently Continental Airlines operates direct flights out of 8-major cities in Japan to Guam therefore this is a great opportunity to introduce Palau via Guam with only few hours transit time. Due to time and budget, only 5 out of 8 cities were chosen after the Marine Diving Fair in April and then remaining 3-cities after the JATA World Fair in September 2009.
The set up of the Roadshow was similar to last year with presentations from PVA introducing the destination, Continental Airlines introducing their services and direct routes via Guam to Palau from the 5-cities, and each of the Palau tour operators and hoteliers introduced their tourism products and services. After the presentations, the travel agents had a one-on-one meeting opportunity with the tour operators and hoteliers to exchange business cards and information.
TO READ MORE ABOUT THESE EVENTS, CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR THE COMPLETE TRIP REPORT!
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