The Palau Road Show launched by PVA-Tokyo office and participating local hoteliers and tour operators earlier this year in April 2008, was a plan for Palau representatives who annually attend two of Japan’s major travel and trade shows; the Marine Diving Fair in April and JATA/WTF in September; to maximize the opportunity in Japan to advance the promotion of Palau outside the allocated show schedule and city.
Soon after the 3-day participation of the Marine Diving Fair in April, the initial Palau Road Show commenced its tour to the first 5 of the 8 major cities; Tokyo, Nagoya, Niigata, Sendai and Sapporo that have operating direct Continental Airlines flights to Guam followed by the final leg of city promotion to Okayama, Hiroshima and Fukuoka shortly after the successful attendance at the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) this past September. The Road Show was set up as a Palau seminar where PVA, Continental Airlines PR, and Palau hoteliers and tour operators gave a short introductory presentation about their services to the travel agents. The Road Show also included Media Luncheon where various media representatives were invited to a luncheon meeting for a Palau introductory presentation. The media representatives are invited to a fam tour to Palau few months after the luncheon to experience the unique tourist attractions and in return they would publish great write-ups in newspapers, magazines, tv and radio.In total, Palau’s promotion was able to reach 536 travel and trade industry members throughout 8 major cities of Japan, introducing Continental Airlines routes to Palau via Guam. This destination campaign is a partnership of PVA, Palau tourism stake holders and Continental Airlines to push awareness of the natural beauty and attractions as the choice tourist destination for the Japan market.
