Pacific Business Center Report
Micronesia as a Sportfishing Destination
Applying University Resources to Improve Business in Pacific Island Communities.
For the past several years, the Pacific Business Center Program has been involved in developing Micronesia as a new kind of recreation destination. Today, sportfishing marketing in the Pacific islands is promoting almost exclusively “trophy” fishes like marlin, swordfish and large tuna, emphasizing tournament play and record catches.
However, instead of fishing all day for the elusive “big one,” many anglers would rather drop their lines where fish are plentiful and bites are frequent. For example, in 1998 alone, 40,000 outof- state anglers bought multi-day fishing licenses in Alaska. In Alaska and Canada, sportfishers are willing to spend $350 to $800 a day, to cast their lines where the action is. Like divers who visit Micronesia from the US mainland, sportfishers are accustomed to high costs and long distances in pursuing their favorite pastime.
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Micronesia’s Advantage
Unlike Alaska and western
Canada, where sportfishing is limited
to the summer months, Micronesia
has an almost year-round fishing season
(except during the hurricane
months of October and November).
While sportfishing is available in
other tropical destinations like
Mexico and Central America, anglers
would find that their Micronesian
hosts speak English and use dollars.
Micronesia is served by U.S.-based
Continental Airlines, which has regularly
scheduled flights to these islands.
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While proper procedures must be established to ensure visiting sportfishing enthusiasts do not compete with local subsistence fishing within the reef boundaries and in atoll lagoons, if properly developed as a niche market, sportfishing can bring in more export dollars with little additional infrastructure development.
Marketing Sports Fishing
In order to develop the
Micronesian islands as a “brand”
destination for saltwater anglers, the
islands’ attractiveness as a
sportfishing destination must be promoted
to targeted audiences. Since
saltwater anglers are dispersed
throughout the western United
States—a very large geographic
area— mass media advertising is out
of the question.
Sportfishers can be efficiently reached by targeting sportfishing tour packagers. However, promotional venues have not been exploited and few materials are currently available to target this audience.
Last year, PBCP received a grant from the US Department of Interior, Office of Insular Affairs, to promote sportfishing in Yap and Palau. The $55,000 grant was supplemented with additional support from the Yap Visitors Bureau and the Palau Visitors Authority ($18,500 each) and from Continental Air Micronesia, which agreed to provide discounted airfares.
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The grant is being used to produce a 10 to 15-minute video; a generic sport fishing brochure into which hotels can insert hotel-specific information; and the creation of a sportfishing website. A video production company on Guam has already been contracted to produce the video. Additionally, sportfishing magazine writers have been invited to go on sportfishing trips in Yap and Palau, and feature them in their magazines. In October, a Micronesia sportfishing night will be held in Honolulu, to which sportfishing industry representatives will be invited. Hotel and lodge operators in Micronesia can then use this as a model to organize future events at sportfishing trade shows and other venues in cities on the US mainland.
Creating a Quality Experience
Another key aspect in developing
a sportfishing market is to ensure
quality experience for anglers. Visiting
anglers expect the boats they
charter are safe, expertly handled,
and their captains skilled in taking
care of their sportfishing guests. In
November, PBCP arranged for the
Palau Visitors Authority to invite Phil
Chavez, a US Coast Guard retiree living
in Yap, to conduct a small boat
safety seminar in Koror. The workshop
was immensely successful, and
a similar workshop is being arranged
for Yap.
Much work remains to be done before all the pieces are in place. The goal is to book three hundred sport fishing packages during the first year, and doubling that number over the second and third years. At an average package price of $2,000 for six days, an increase in tourism revenue of $5.1 million over the next three years is very possible.
PBCP Provides Palau an Array of Expertise
Since 1989, the Pacific Business
Center Program has been involved
in the economic development
of Palau, when it was then a U.S. trust
territory. Since then, the Center has
completed hundreds of projects for private
businesses, public institutions and
government agencies with various
types of business development assistance.
In earlier years, the Center focused especially on providing assistance to small business owners and local entrepreneurs starting or expanding their businesses. For example, PBCP has written business plans for a bike rental shop, for a developer of a commercial site, and a local brewer. The Center has done feasibility studies and product research for silkscreen printing, vending machine operations, food catering, and furniture manufacture. The Center has also conducted export market research in tropical flowers, soft coral, and ornamental tropical fish industries.
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While advances in technology have tremendously lowered transportation and communication costs in Palau, the same is true in other parts of the world. The playing field for the global market has grown much larger in the past decade, but it has also become less level for small island states in the Pacific, isolated as they are from potential global urban markets.
Public-Private Partnerships
Meeting this formidable challenge
requires cooperation among businesses
and local and regional governments,
and the development of healthy private-
public partnerships at local, state,
national and international levels. Thus,
in addition to assisting
small businesses,
the Center has always
worked closely with
Palau government
agencies on various
economic development
initiatives.
In recent years, the Center has focused more efforts on working with Palau’s governments, in identifying promising areas of private enterprise. For example, the Center has researched the feasibility of setting up a fish cake processing plant, a banana chip and coconut candy packaging and marketing operation, a ham radio communication network, and the production of pigeons and cassava as agricultural exports.
Specialized Training
The Center assists in Palau’s economic
development by providing training
in a variety of topics. In recent
months, the Center’s specialist in Palau’s
business development, Mr. David
Gillespie (a finalist for the RCUH 2002
Employee of the Year award) conducted
half-day workshops on starting up a
business and on writing business plans.
These well-attended workshops, held in
the CNMI and Palau, were sponsored
in Palau by the local chamber of commerce.
Mr. Gillespie returned in March
with a half-day workshop on financial
statement analysis.
The Center has also arranged for other experts to provide needed training in other areas of significant economic opportunities. Last November, for example, PBCP made arrangements for the Palau Visitors Authority to invite a retired US Coast Guard veteran now living in Yap, to conduct a small boat safety seminar in Koror, as part of a regional initiative to develop Palau and Yap as an international sportfishing destinations.
Gateway to University Expertise
How can the Center be the source
of such a wide range of expertise in
business development? Like the other
70 federally funded university centers
across the United States, the Pacific
Business Center Program serves as a
gateway to experts within the university
where it is located. PBCP routinely
consults and contracts with experts
elsewhere on the University of
Hawaii’s ten campuses— experts in
tropical agriculture, aquaculture,
oceanography, tourism, architecture, to
name a few.
With over two decades of experience in working with Pacific Island states, the Pacific Business Center Program is well equipped to help Palau meet the challenges of tailoring Westernstyle business values and practices to meet the economic development needs of Palau in culturally sensitive ways.
As the various small Pacific island states, each with its unique history and cultural traditions, struggle with the issues of globalization and changing natural and cultural environments, PBCP will continue to support them in providing for their economic well-being.
Pacific Business Center Program
University of Hawaii at Manoa
College of Business Administration
2404 Maile Way, A-413
Honolulu, HI 96822-2223
Tel: (808) 956-6286
Fax: (808) 956-6278
email: director@pbcp.cba.hawaii.edu
http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/pbcp
Principal Investigator: Dr. Joyce Tsunoda,
Senior Vice President and Chancellor for
Community Colleges, University of Hawaii
Director: Papalii Dr. Failautusi Avegalio
The Pacific Business Center Program operates under a technical assistance grant from the Economic Development Administration, US Department of Commerce. It also is supported by the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of Interior; the University of Hawaii College of Business Administration; the states of Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia; Palau; the Marshall Islands; and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Additional support is provided by Continental Micronesia and the Pacific Islands Club on Guam.
