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Top: Tour Operators Reps; Center: PVA Reps.; Bottom: Hoteliers Reps. |
Palau Visitors Authority Marketing & Research Manager, Ms. Yumie Morishita, together with Ms. Heather Ngiratregd, Marketing Rep. II, attended the Marine Diving Fair held in Ikkebukuro, Japan. They were later joined by PVA Japan Representative, Mr. Tsuyoshi Shibamura. Also several representatives of Palau hoteliers and tour operators attended the show in their continuing effort to market Palau to Japan to boost visitors from that region.
Marine Dive Fair
is Japan's largest annual dive show coordinated with three Japan's major magazines; Marine Diving-First and largest Japan diving Magazine, Travel Diver, and Marine Photo. This fair is held to highlight dive destinations and beach resorts from many countries around the world and the chance for each country tourism representative to showcase their destination to the Japanese travelers. This year's fair showed the biggest number of visitors with 49,764 people registered with 80.2% of which are in the diver category.
The highlight feature during the show is the awarding nominations voted by the readers of three magazines in association of several categories. Under the Overseas Destination categories, overall, Palau took 2nd place for Best Diving Area, 2nd place for Resort Area, and 3rd Place for Best Dreaming Area. Palau operators also did very well taking first place in three categories: Palau Pacific Resort took 1st Place for Best Dive Resort; Aqua Magic took 1st Place for Favorite Dive Operator; and Palau Sport took 1st Place for Best Live-Aboard.
In addition to promoting Palau through successful dive fair, Palau Visitors Authority continues to build a good working relationships with key stake holders in the tourism industry. After the three days dive fair, PVA joined by Continental, sponsored the next two days for a media luncheon and Palau Seminar that was attended by 21 Media outlets (2 tv shows and 19 consumer magazine representatives) and 72 travel agents who were given a short presentation on Palau and were extended invitations to visit and familiarize Palau with its beauty and potential. The purpose of the Palau Seminar was to give local non-diving operators, who attended the fair, the maximum opportunity to promote themselves and sell their products and services to the 72 travel agents who attended the whole day seminar. Local hoteliers and operators who were present at this year's fair were: Aqua Magic, Palau Sport, Sam's Tours, Carp Isand, IMPAC Tours, Dolphins Pacific, Palasia Hotel, Palau Royal Resort, Palau Pacific Resort, Airai View Hotel, Blue Marlin, Day Dream, and Palau Plantation Resort.
So with continuing hard work and support from our local operators to take part in promoting Palau as a choice destination for diving and non-diving, we hope that the visitors to the fair would choose to visit and brand Palau as #1 in the future. |
