Host Community Attitude Toward Trade-off Between Tourism Development and Environmental Conservation: A Case Study of Palau

Abstract

Palau is home to one of the purest marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean; however, since 2015, Palau has suffered an economic decline due to the negative environmental effects of over- tourism. The island country is at the crossroads of stagnation and recovery. The community attitude towards the trade-off between tourism development and environmental conservation are critical for forging a tourism strategy. This research attempts to identify the attitudes, values and beliefs of the community and proposes an appropriate plan within the current tourism scenario. The method of in-depth interviews and secondary data analysis were applied using NVivo software. The results showed that there are different viewpoints between the residents and the government, but there is one aspect that everyone agrees on: the need to develop tourism strategy that runs parallel to environmental conservation by upgrading Palau’s tourism to provide a high-end product. This would ideally result in finding a balance between the needs of the host community and sustainable tourism in a win-win scenario.