Jakarta Globe, Sébastien Blanc, Mar 16, 2015
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A Chinese tourist walking on a beach on the Rock Islands in Palau on
March 6, 2015. (AFP Photo/Sébastien Blanc) |
Koror,
Palau. Chinese tourists are flocking to the remote Palau islands as China’s
growing number of rich seek new frontiers abroad, but not everyone in the
Micronesian paradise is happy about it.
Strapped
into life-jackets and screaming with excitement, groups of boisterous Chinese
thrill-seekers tear around Palau’s “Milky Way” lagoon on a flotilla of
speedboats — a spectacle unfamiliar to locals just a few months ago.
Residents
of the archipelago, part of the larger island group of Micronesia, are baffled
as to why Chinese travellers represented almost 62 percent of all visitors in
February — up from 16 percent in January 2014.
For
businessman Du Chuang from Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province, it is because
his increasingly wealthy countrymen are becoming more adventurous, smashing the
stereotype of the herded package tour.
Du first
started to travel by visiting Hainan, the Chinese island in the South China Sea
currently witnessing a massive development of hotel resorts. He then ventured
to Thailand before branching out to the Maldives.
”The corals
here are more beautiful than Sanya [on Hainan],” the 46-year-old told AFP,
scrolling through photos on his phone of a $1,400 helicopter trip over Palau’s
Seventy Islands that he took his family on.
”Palau is
small and magnificent,” added the owner of a successful IT company.
Hoteliers
are catching on, with some establishments focusing on Chinese clientele booked
out months in advance. At “Sea Passion Hotel” in Koror, 74 of their 75 rooms
were occupied by Chinese visitors when AFP visited.
On a beach
Chinese women wearing full body suits to protect themselves from the sun pose
for selfies with husbands and boyfriends in sleeveless vests, which they send
to their friends back home in China’s grey megacities.
‘It’s like
paradise’
Jia Yixin,
a 30-year-old from Shanghai, didn’t think twice about paying $1,133 for a
six-day trip to Palau that she found online.
”It is like
paradise here,” she beamed. “In Shanghai the air is polluted but here people
respect the environment,” Jia added.
Ironically
it is the potential environmental impact of the Chinese invasion that is at the
forefront of the minds of many of the islands’ 18,000 population.
Palau
welcomed just shy of 141,000 visitors last year, up 34 percent on 2013, largely
on the back of the Chinese visitors. But in February this year, mainland
Chinese visitors leaped more than 500 percent year-on-year to 10,955 — more
than half Palau’s total population.
Tourism
accounts for close to 85 percent of Palau’s gross domestic product, and while
profits are up, some are worried the long-term damage may be too great.
”This is a
very sudden influx, so we are trying to understand the situation” said Nanae
Singeo, managing director of the Palau Visitors Authority, the local tourist
board.
”We have
never experienced this much tourism before and the magnitude is really giving
us a lot of pressure. We are a very tiny country with scarce resources so this
sudden increase is an unknown challenge for us,” she added.
Palau has
long catered for a particular type of visitor, with up to 70 percent of
tourists coming for world-famous diving in stunning blue waters with pristine
corals.
Japanese
were traditionally the largest contingent, followed by Taiwanese and Korean
visitors. But the majority of the new wave of Chinese tourists seem more
interested — for now at least — in lounging on the beach.
”We are not
seeing a growth rate to match the number of visitors,” said Singeo. “Tourists
are up 34 percent so technically we should see economic benefits at the rate of
30 percent or more, but that’s not the case.”
‘They wreck
corals’
On the
streets of Koror, some accused Chinese people of being noisy and disrespectful
towards the environment.
”They wreck
corals and throw their rubbish in the sea,” chided Norman, a taxi driver.
In another
recent example, a Chinese tour operator named “Yellow Skin Tour” caused outrage
in Palau with leaflets including photos of grinning Chinese tourists holding up
turtles they had removed from the water — in one case by its flippers.
Residents
have also accused Chinese tourists of being responsible for the deaths of some
jellyfish at the natural wonder “Jellyfish Lake.”
Visitors
are encouraged to marvel at the harmless creatures by floating on the surface,
but some locals complain that many Chinese lack swimming skills and thrash
around, disturbing the wildlife.
The Palau
government is exploring ways to try to stem the tide of Chinese tourists to the
western Pacific Ocean archipelago and this week said the number of charter
flights from China would be halved next month.
President
Tommy Remengesau said the move was not intended to discriminate against any
nationality but was to prevent tourism from becoming too reliant on one market.
”Do we want
to control growth or do we want growth to control us?” he asked reporters. “It
will be irresponsible for me as a leader if this trend continues. I am not only
looking at the present but, as a leader, I am looking after tomorrow.”
But the
number of hotels, restaurants and guides in Palau now catering for a Chinese
market would suggest that citizens of the world’s second-largest economy are
likely to keep coming.
Agence France-Presse
