Palau’s purposeful push to inspire other countries in sustainable tourism

Less a tourism campaign and more a permanent, nationwide initiative, the duo behind the most awarded campaign in the world in 2018 are hoping its new campaign will also scale globally.

The Republic of Palau is back with a new initiative in which responsible visitors tally up points giving them access to unique money-can’t-buy experiences on the Pacific island.

The launch of Ol’au Palau follows the country’s globally award-winning Palau Pledge campaign with Host/Havas in 2017, and the launch of a world-first immigration law that requires all visitors to sign a mandatory environmental pledge that’s stamped into a visitor’s passport on arrival.

Now, the duo are back, with Host/Havas CEO Laura Aldington saying Ol’au Palau is less a tourism campaign and more a permanent, nationwide initiative, embraced at every level of the Palauan tourism, cultural and business sector.

“For such a small country, Palau is a major player when it comes to sustainable practices, and so Ol’au Palau reflects this ambitious and game-changing attitude,” she said.

“While it uses modern principles of behaviour change, it does it in a way that celebrates the beautifully warm and welcoming Palauan spirit.”

In the local Palauan language, “ol’au” is a way of calling out to a friend to invite them into your space. This principle is the basis for the initiative which creates a different type of tourism value exchange: one where visitors can accumulate points for demonstrating responsible and regenerative behaviour during their stay.

In return, visitors can use these points to unlock some of the best and most unique experiences Palau has to offer, which have previously only been accessible to Palauans and close friends.

Visitors to Palau will be able to accumulate points in the Ol’au Palau app by doing things such as offsetting their carbon footprint using Palau’s world-first personal carbon calculator; using reef-safe sunscreen; frequenting businesses that are reducing their impact on the environment and culture; visiting certain culturally significant tourism sites; eating sustainably sourced local food; participating in community regenerative tourism projects; and avoiding single-use plastics.

The new initiative creates a different type of tourism value exchange: one where visitors can accumulate points for demonstrating responsible and regenerative behaviour during their stay.

Host/Havas chief strategy officer Olly Taylor said that with the agency believing that “entertainment beats interruption”, Ol’au Palau started with a thought around whether they could combine entertainment – specifically the properties of gamification – with genuine eco-tourism.

“We loved the audaciousness of turning sustainable behaviour into a quantifiable and accumulative national currency,” he said.

“Throw in the white-knuckled, sweaty pressure of following up an initiative like Palau Pledge, and we ended up seeing just how far we could push that thought.”

Examples of unlocked experiences include accessing pristine parts of the island, meeting local elders and touring historic sites, hikes that are off the beaten track, visiting villages and having lunch with the community, traditional fishing at secret spots, swimming at spectacular hidden caves and other highly tailored tours only available for Ol’au Palau guests.

Visitors tally up points giving them access to unique money-can’t-buy experiences on the Pacific island.

These experiences won’t be available to visitors who don’t participate or who don’t accumulate enough points during their stay.

Rather than attracting more visitors, Host/Havas executive creative director Jon Austin said Palau needed to attract more sustainably-minded tourists.

However, with limited resources, the country simply can’t afford a significant traditional paid media campaign.

Instead, Ol’au Palau will use like-minded thought leaders, influencers and made-for-social-messaging to help spread the word.

“It’s not often we create things we’d like to see copied the world over, but if this is something that is adopted by other countries, we’d be thrilled to think this could usher in a new era in sustainable tourism,” Mr Austin said.

Pre-Covid 19, tourism comprised 85 per cent of Palau’s GDP, but when international travel collapsed in 2020 the country was hit hard by the pandemic, with no visitors travelling to the island nation for almost two years.

A world first tourism initiative

Jennifer Koskelin-Gibbons, co-founder of the Palau Legacy Project which spearheaded Ol’au Palau, said she liked to think of it as a conservation initiative with an economic outcome.

“As borders start to open again, global market research has revealed a growing awareness of people’s damaging behaviour on the environment, and a desire to engage with (and pay more for) sustainable travel experiences,” she said.

“With such strong positive sentiment toward travelling sustainably, Ol’au Palau aims to help the country bounce back from the pandemic and rebuild its tourism sector sustainably, while leading the world into a new era of regenerative tourism.”

Ms Koskelin-Gibbons said the country wanted visitors who are high-value – spending time and money in the community.

Ol’au Palau will use like-minded thought leaders, influencers and made-for-social-messaging to help spread the word.

They also needed to be low-impact – those who tread lightly and respect the environment and culture, and that Ol’au Palau is the perfect way to reward its guests who do just that.

Ol’au Palau was launched in response to new global market research that revealed more than 90 per cent of people want to experience a destination’s natural environment and culture and learn how to preserve and protect it during their stay.

In addition, 87 per cent of people said that they would spend more for holiday in a destination that had a pristine, protected environment and culture.

The research also showed that 89 per cent of people would be more interested in visiting a country with this type of rewards program, and that participating would make them feel good about their holiday.

Since the launch of the most awarded campaign in the world in 2018 – Palau Pledge – more than 600,000 people have signed the pledge, including Leonardo Di Caprio, The Rolling Stones, Queen Noor of Jordan, Sir Richard Branson, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Christina Aguilera and more.

More than 1.7 billion media impressions meant the world was talking about the initiative and other countries rolled out similar initiatives across the globe.

Ms Koskelin-Gibbons said the goal was always to scale globally and much like Palau Pledge, the hope is that Ol’au Palau will inspire other nations and destinations to incentivise regenerative action from visitors in the same way.

“Our biggest fear is not about the campaign: it’s that if we don’t all work together to regenerate our planet globally, our children won’t have the kind of future we hope for them,” she said.