COERCION:
China has banned state-run package tours to the island nation which has significantly affected its tourism industry in the past few years, Palau figures show
China has been “weaponizing” tourism in Palau by restricting travel for Chinese tourists, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said yesterday, as she urged Taiwanese to visit the tropical island nation.
“Palau has in recent years been affected by China weaponizing tourism as a means of coercion,” Hsiao said while speaking with reporters on the last day of her visit to the diplomatic ally.
The number of Chinese tourists to Palau has often fluctuated dramatically according to controls placed by Beijing, she said.
Photo: CNA
Palau’s own tourism statistics make that clear, hitting a high of 91,095 visitors from China in 2015, up from 21,661 in 2014, before plunging to 28,368 in 2019 and 21,286 last year.
Hsiao recommended that Taiwanese tourists visit Palau, where they can engage in snorkeling, hiking, boating and cycling, and experience the country’s maritime culture.
In the past few years, China has banned state-run package tours to Palau and issued periodic travel alerts for the island country, significantly decreasing the number of visitors in an effort to pressure Palau to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in March 2021 set a goal to increase the annual number of tourists to Palau to 100,000 as she tried to help it survive the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic on its tourism sector.
However, the goal never became a reality, and the number of seats sold by Taiwan’s state-run China Airlines per flight to the island country averaged about 10 percent of capacity in November that year, forcing the airline to cancel all direct flights that month.
China Airlines resumed direct flights to Palau in December 2021, and it now operates four flights a week to Koror that in the first four months of this year had a load factor of about 77 percent.
Taiwanese visitor numbers have never rebounded from their peak from 2011 to 2014, when they averaged 33,126 visitors a year, Palau’s inbound tourism statistics show.
They rose to 13,367 last year, up about 18 percent from the previous year, but were still far from the peak of 40,605 Taiwanese visitors in 2012, Palau’s figures show.
In her comments yesterday, Hsiao also highlighted the public infrastructure projects aided by Taiwan dotting Babeldaob and Peleliu she had seen on her trip.
She praised the work of Taiwan’s Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital in assisting with healthcare services at Belau National Hospital.
Such projects are a testament to the frequent exchanges between the two countries, Hsiao said.
On Tuesday, when asked about her scheduled visit to the hospital, the vice president said healthcare is a major area of collaboration between Taiwan and Palau.
Both countries have experienced a shortage of medical staff, and Taiwan has been assisting Palau in introducing digital and virtual healthcare technologies to boost the capacity of local medical institutions, she said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Hsiao visited the Palau National Aquaculture Center and a center tasked with restoring the local giant clam population to learn about the results of Taiwan-assisted fisheries projects in the Pacific state.
She also visited Malakal Island in the state of Koror where she listened to a briefing by Taiwan’s CECI Engineering Consultants Inc on development plans to promote tourism on the island.
Hsiao was scheduled to wrap up her five-day visit to the Pacific ally and return to Taiwan yesterday evening.
