Tourism provides wealth, but mass tourism - when large numbers go to a destination - can have positive and negative impacts. Like Palau, many destinations are popular because of their rich biodiversity. These fragile environments are often under the most pressure.

Thanks to the same industrial model developed for cars, houses and other consumer goods, mass tourism has exploded since the 1950s, threatening everything from oceans and beaches, to coral reefs and marine life. Many new visitors to Palau, from developing markets, don’t share the same conservation mindset as Palauans. They need to be educated on the right way to behave in Palau in order for it to be protected.

Many locals too need to be encouraged to respect and properly manage the resources on which they depend.

The Palau Pledge unifies action to protect Palau’s environment, mandating visitors sign an environmental oath - stamped inside their passports - before they can legally enter the country.

The Pledge shows tourists their role in protecting Palau.

It’s an innovative approach to conservation, activating social pressure to drive behavioural change. By modeling to visitors a responsible way to travel, locals are creating a better alternative where their natural/ cultural resources are respected.

To promote personal responsibility and encourage sustainable actions, a bold, permanent new entry visa process was created for Palau.

All arriving visitors MUST now sign a pledge, stamped in their passports, to be good environmental stewards.

This mandatory agreement, dedicated to Palau’s children, needs to be signed before an officer.

Visitors are required to read and sign the agreement in front of the officer to gain entry.

The Palau Government passed a new law on December 6, 2017, directing immigration officials to use the Palau Pledge entry visa stamp.

The agency brought together client (the Palau Legacy Project, a sustainable tourism marketing body), government, tourism industry and citizens to implement the new policy.

• Immigration law, customs processes were changed permanently

• The Pledge was issued in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean

• Visitors required to watch an inflight film shown on all inbound flights

• Business accreditation program created to empower tourism businesses/ residents

• New curriculum for primary/ secondary school students and other training programs to help build eco-awareness and conscious business principles within the tourist sector

• Locals/ tour operators encouraged to take Pledge

• Multi-language passport brochure/ airport posters/ website/ signage around Palau/ social influencer activity

Launched at the UN, the Pledge garnered enormous coverage for Palau’s conservation efforts. Its social, cultural, and political impact is local and global:

• Over 2 million tourists will sign Pledge within first 10 years

• In first weeks of launch, Pledge achieved 1.7 billion earned media impressions (for $0 spend)

• Pledge endorsed by global organisations/ leaders in politics, conservation, and tourism, including UN, World Economic Forum, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Kerry (Former US Secretary of State) to name a few

• The first country to incorporate environmental practices into its immigration laws

While Palau is a small nation, its efforts to mitigate mass tourism’s effects can be seen on a global scale. Already nations including New Zealand have expressed interest in creating their own visitor Pledge. By taking steps to sustainably manage its tourist population, Palau hopes other countries will take action to protect their environment.

The agency created the idea of the Palau Pledge in response to the client’s brief: to promote ecologically responsible behaviour amongst tourists and locals, ensuring enforcement and encouragement is seen to be everyone’s job.

The Pledge is a commitment device rooted in behavioural economics. By making a person agree to a small, public request to sign the Pledge, it creates a strong internal desire to behave consistently.

Palau can also take legal action against visitors who violate the strict environmental laws underpinning the Pledge – including fining offenders up to USD 1 million.

The Palau Pledge unifies action to protect Palau’s environment. It shows tourists their role in protecting Palau.

By modelling to visitors a responsible way to travel, locals are creating a better alternative where their natural/ cultural resources are respected.

The Republic of Palau, a Micronesian nation in the Pacific, has seen a massive growth in tourist numbers, particularly in the past three years.

The Palau Legacy Project, a tourism marketing body that works alongside the government, recognised that without action, it would be too late to protect some of the most unique parts of the country, such as the UNESCO World Heritage listed Rock Islands.

Palau’s residents are passionate about their local community and environment. The environment is crucial to their livelihood. They want to ensure Palau remains a paradise for future generations and visitors.

The challenge was to find a balance between encouraging tourism without compromising the environment.

But the costs of environmentally wasteful, destructive behaviour are often difficult to feel on an individual level. Those costs are not the result of any one person’s careless actions but of aggregate actions, not felt until months/ years afterwards.

This makes it difficult for people to understand the value of making an effort towards conservation.

The objective: partner with the government, the Palau population and the tourist industry to model and promote sustainable attitudes and behaviour among tourists and locals.