Tourism between Taiwan and Palau will not restart anytime soon, according to the Taiwan Ambassador to Palau.
Ambassador Wallace Chow was responding to earlier reports about a planned revival of tourism.
In an email he said the ‘tourism bubble’ was unlikely.
“So it’s not correct to say that tourism between our two countries will resume soon.
“However both our governments have been discussing how to maintain essential flights, at least two flights a month, between our two sides, ” Chow said.
He stressed that incoming flights from Taiwan to Palau in September were for essential workers and not for tourists.
“We’ve seen two flights in August and hopefully there will be two flights in September. We want to gradually open our borders to each other with very careful attitude and cautious measures, moving from essential flights to business and tourism flights. So far there’s no fixed timetable yet,” he said.
Ambassador Chow also said that while Taiwan had reduced the quarantine time for Palauan patients and their escorts seeking medical treatment there from 14 days to five days, a special visa was needed for such travel.
“All these treatments are based on the condition that Palau remains Covid-19 free. Whoever wants to go to Taiwan now needs to apply for special visa from the Embassy although we have signed visa waiver agreement,” Chow added.
Palau’s Minister of Public Infrastructure, Industries and Commerce, Charles Obichang said flights from Taiwan were for “the professional people like engineers, doctors, medical professionals, teachers to be able to come to Palau to carry out their work.”
Despite being one of the few countries in the world to remain Covid-free, Palau continued to bear the brunt of economic woes as tourism was its main economic driver.
On Tuesday, Palau’s Ambassador to Taiwan, Dilmei Louisa Olkeriil, told the Taiwan News that discussions were ongoing with local authorities and Taiwanese travel agencies about reviving the tourism industry.
However the online article was removed the next day.
China Airlines used to fly at least four times a week to Palau pre-pandemic.
In March, the flights were halted after the Taiwan government closed its borders to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
