President Tommy Remengesau Jr. is asking the Olbiil Era Kelulau(OEK) to put in more money to the Palau Visitor’s Authority (PVA) to help attract more visitors and development of marketing strategies to key tourism markets.

In a supplemental budget submitted yesterday to OEK, the president is requesting lawmakers to earmark an amount of $455,000 “to focus marketing efforts on key markets.”

In an earlier letter to President Remengesau, PVA Managing Director Stephanie Nakamura said the additional funding will be used to participate in the Japan Travel fair this year, to hire a marketing and public relations representative in Korea, join important trade fairs in South Korea, take part in the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) travel mart in Kazakhstan.

The additional funding will also be used for Angaur State and Ngchesar State One Stop Shop Program.

“At PVA, we continue to deliver our commitments and priorities in promoting Palau with our branding ‘Pristine Paradise Palau, the highly successful Palau Pledge Program and the Palau National Marine Sanctuary amongst others with the simple practice of diversifying our tourism products,” Nakamura stated.

She added that the money will be used to achieve the goals of both international and local marketing efforts.

Nakamura noted that it is necessary to help states improve tourism sites, develop tours by training Angaur and Ngchesar state representatives.

For the international marketing efforts, the strategy will be focused on Japan and South Korean markets to help increase arrivals.

Ngiraiblas Tmetuchl, PVA Chairman of the board earlier said an increase of inbound tourism in Palau could be achieved by boosting advertising spending, investing in new tourism attractions and diversifying the country’s tourism product.

Currently, PVA’s budget is about   $1.5 million.

One area that PVA is targeting is drawing more tourists from Japan. He said the tourism body, with more funding, could increase advertising campaign in Japan and South Korea.

Japan is the second biggest tourism market on Palau and is considered one of the highest-spending travelers. (Bernadette H. Carreon)