Palau’s tourism numbers in 2022 are seeing a recovery compared to the January to July 2021 arrivals but it still remains below the pre- COVID-19 tourists coming into the country.
In the latest Palau Visitors Authority arrivals report, there is a total of 5,651 tourists from the period of January to July 2021.
The top three markets for the first seven months of 2022 are tourists from the United States and Canada, followed by tourists from Japan and Europe.
Before the pandemic, the top markets are arrivals from China, Taiwan, and Japan.
A big part of arrivals in Palau is from the US military contingents, who have been conducting exercises in the country.
April was the busiest month for Palau this year with 1,241 visitors, July was second with 1,113 arrivals, and 1,000 tourists arrived in the country in June.
April was the resumption of a weekly direct flight of United from Palau to the Philippines
Palau also reopened its borders to fully vaccinated tourists in mid-2021 via flights through Guam, which according to the latest Asian Development Bank (ADB) Pacific Economic Report, “enabled steady gains in tourist arrivals, which recovered slightly to more than 4,600 (about 10% of pre-pandemic levels) during the second half of 2021. “
ADB report said that the Omicron outbreak in January 2022 did not hinder tourists coming into Palau in the first quarter of 2022, with 1,500 or 6% of pre-pandemic arrivals.
With Japan and the Republic of Korea said to be resuming flights later in the year, “provide some optimism for increased arrivals for the rest of the year,” ADB said.