Conference on Island Sustainability wraps up with focus on tourism efforts

The University of Guam wrapped up its week-long Conference on Island Sustainability. The final day focussed on Islands are Rising for economic recovery, and featured keynote speakers including President Surangel Whipps Jr. from the Republic of Palau who discussed the new travel bubble between Palau and Taiwan, while a representative from the British Virgin Islands introduced tracking bracelets that reduce quarantine time for incoming travelers.

Palau is the first country in the region to re-open its tourism industry. They have set up a "travel bubble" with Taiwan, which

 

has seen the arrival of two flights with a couple of hundred visitors.  Whipps says it wasn't easy, but they were able to build confidence in Taiwan that Palau was truly COVID-free.

"Now our challenge is how do we convince travelers to come to Palau for three days and it cost three thousand dollars because of all these requirements," he said. "So the next step is how do we make it more efficient, how do we make the experience more pleasant, and how do we really entice more visitors to come to Palau to get our economy back."

President Whipps said they established a "sterile corridor," by requiring that arriving passengers take a PCR test at the airport, instead of just 72 hours before departure. Governor Leon Guerrero and the Guam visitors bureau are expected to travel to Taiwan to set up a similar travel bubble.

Center for Island Sustainability Director, Dr. Austin Shelton detailed more on today's as well as yesterday's panelists. 

"We learned about renewable energy from Hank Rogers, the owner of Tetris and also the founder of Blue Planet Alliance, how we're going to emerge into the new green economy," he said. "We also had Sam Shinohara from united Airlines sharing about our upcoming recovery and the reopening of tourism and the work that he and the Guam Visitor's Bureau Board are working on in that area."

Yesterday's conference featured CIS Seed Talks: Ideas Worth Cultivating. The University is partnered with the Obama Foundation and featured four Obama Foundation representatives from around different parts of the Pacific along with New Zealand rep, Te P Katene.

"There was sort of a recurring theme that came through a few of them that our future actually lies somewhere in our past and we thought that that was a pretty interesting topic for indigenous communities in the Pacific on how we move forward towards a sustainable future," Shelton said. 

Human rights lawyer and founder at Blue Ocean Law and author, Julian Aguon, read a special chapter from his book entitled "Our Father" about climate change and human rights champion, the late Tony Debrum.

For those that may have missed the conference, the Center for Island Sustainability will be releasing an edited compilation of this year's entire conference which will be available on the UOG website in the next two weeks.