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Survivor Palau Prepares For New TV Season -- Again

By David Miho in Palau
Friday: September 21, 2007

Survivor 16 Palau is in Palau with an initial engineering crew that is working with over 20 large shipping containers next to NECO Marine in the Malakal industrial area.

The 50 construction workers, electricians and carpenters have been arriving over the past week as the containers arrived.

Palau is benefiting from the popular Survivor television series for the second time, which filmed Survivor Palau in 2004. The site set up and shoot will take about three months with the actual filming to take between 30 and 45 days.

The work and management crew completed work on Survivor 15 in China. A number of the crewmembers expressed pleasure at being in Palau, speaking English, and having ready access to familiar foods and beverages. Most of the crew is from Australia, where the series originated.

Aside from the significant global exposure for Palau and its fledgling tourism industry, Big Fish Ink, as the show’s production company is called, contributes significantly to Palau’s economy.

Presidential Chief of Staff Billy Kuartei says that Survivor 10 in Palau contributed significantly to Palau’s economy in wages to local hires, supplies, hotel and ground transportation, boats and drivers, restaurants and bars and local grocery and department stores.

Big Fish Ink location manager Blake Archer said, “We’ll bring in about 250 international crew to complete the film and also hire about 200 locals for guides, building sets, drive boats, preparing food, labor and other needs.”

Clear Water Ink, the name of Survivor 10’s production company and employees spent about $4.5 million in 2004 in Palau, according to Archer.