Selling PNG’S unique culture and beauty

From modest beginnings, Papua New Guinea’s tourism sector is starting to make progress internationally. Robert Upe reports.

Papua New Guinea tourism was in the world spotlight in 2014, with a startling publicity campaign in New York. Two PNG tribesmen, in traditional dress, stopped cars and crowds as they wandered the streets of the Big Apple and visited sites such as the Empire State Building.

Additionally, one of the world’s leading travel publishers, Lonely Planet, selected PNG Village Stays on its list of the 26 experiences to do in the world in 2015, and the New York Times named the new Lake Murray Fishing Lodge in its 52 places to go in 2015.

Leisure travel

It’s the type of invaluable publicity that PNG tourism needs. Of PNG’S 182,188 visitors in 2013, only 41,000 were leisure travellers, according to figures provided by the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA).

While leisure tourism is on the rise, helped along by the ever-popular Kokoda Track and a boom in cruise ship visits, it is business and employment travel that is really sending PNG’S visitor numbers on a trajectory that would please the National Government. Business and employment travel into the country has more than tripled since about 2002.

But in raw figures, leisure travel has only increased by 10,000 people in the past five years.

‘While leisure tourism numbers are increasing due largely to the growing awareness of Papua New Guinea as a viable tourist destination, business travellers are a more significant source of inbound tourism expenditure,’ says Euromonitor International, a London-based market intelligence firm.

‘Australia, New Zealand and the US represent key business traveller source markets and mining is the dominant foreign investment activity.’

Government target

The World Travel and Tourism Council says the ‘direct contribution’ of travel and tourism to the country’s GDP was K369.5 million in 2013 and it forecasts this to rise by 4.3% between 2014 and 2024. Tourism’s ‘ total contribution’ to PNG’S 2013 GDP was 2.5 per cent.

To help these figures along, the National Government has targeted tourism as a priority area for economic development and for the creation of employment opportunities.

Tourism hub

One of the Government’s major initiatives is to turn Rabaul in East New Britain into PNG’S tourism hub.

The Rabaul project manager, Kayleen Allen from TPA Australia, says that in order to make Rabaul the tourism capital, it is important to work and train those in the industry up to the standard where they can take in international guests.

‘We need a holistic approach, hard work and commitment from everyone here in East New Britain. We must all work together to make this happen.

‘Over a three-year period, we will be looking at how customer services are being provided here in East New Britain, the pricing structure in the hotel industry, tour packages, scheduling, expectations of customers, training, law and order and many other areas. We will be working with everyone to make this happen.”

Last May, the national carrier, Air Niugini, made a commitment to support the government’s initiative when it implemented twice-weekly direct flights between Rabaul and Cairns in Australia.

Australians are, by far, the key source of visitors to PNG, and the convenient new Cairns flights should help bolster leisure arrivals, especially since travellers can bypass the country’s capital, Port Moresby, which suffers from an image problem.

Image challenge

The TPA says that many visitors do not understand the vast difference between Port Moresby and the safe regional areas such as New Ireland, East New Britain and Mine Bay.

On that point, Linda Honey, owner of the popular Tufi Resort that helps arrange the village stays that Lonely Planet endorses, says PNG does suffer from negative media reports.

‘But where tourists are going is very, very safe and the people welcome and nurture the tourists,’ she counters.

‘There is so much more (tourism) potential in PNG and that’s the story that doesn’t get out,’ she says.

Adventure tourism

Regis St Louis, a writer for London’s Telegraph newspaper, reported recently:

‘A land of thriving tribal cultures, smouldering volcanoes and vast swathes of pristine mountainous rainforest, Papua New Guinea is one of the world’s last great frontiers and remains largely untouched by mass tourism.'

Indeed, Honey says the village stays attract adventure travellers rather than mass-market commercial tourists.

She says it is a raw, grassroots experience that helps villagers earn income and shows visitors a very old culture.

Trekking, especially on Kokoda, also remains a major drawcard.

Cruising boom

‘Fishing, diving and other coastal adventures are also enticing people to PNG shores and, of course, cruising is now making a difference to visitor numbers as well,' says Leigh Reading, a sales and marketing executive with the TPA.

‘Cruising was 2014’s strongest new trend for the destination,’ Reading says. ‘The arrival of a large number of cruise ship operators meant that the destination was required to adapt to service a new style of traveller. We’re seeing more mass cruising, such as P&O Cruises, visiting places like Rabaul and Milne Bay, making them more accessible to a new audience. Travellers are enticed by the comfort of the ship’s accommodation and dining options, while still being able to experience the culture and the beauty of the country.’

To embrace the cruise boom, new jetties have been built at Kitava and Kaibola, among other places, but Milne Bay has been the focus of the ships because it already had a good port.

P&O visits five PNG ports and is adding Kavieng and Madang to its 2015 itineraries.

‘P&O’S return to PNG was possible because of the strong support of the National Government and local authorities, particularly in relation to the provision of infrastructure to accommodate cruise ship visits,’ P&O’S CEO, Anne Sherry, is on the record as saying.

Other visiting cruise companies include the HollandAmerica Line, Japan’s NYK Cruises, the British ships Black Watch and Caledonian Sky, French Polynesia-based Paul Gaugin, the residential cruise ship The World, Silversea and Hapag Lloyd. Small-size expedition ships continue to have a strong presence.

An obvious benefit of the cruise boom is that village economies are boosted through the provision of shore excursions, cultural experiences and the sale of handicrafts.

Attracting investors

Meanwhile, the National Government, through the TPA, is promoting new investments in major tourism facilities, such as large-scale resorts.

Packages, including financial incentives for investors, are available. Planning guidelines and suitable sites have been identified and investors are being sought to develop projects.

The TPA says it can help arrange pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for certain projects and will work closely with other agencies to assist in identifying business partners—local or foreign—and assist in the licensing and registration clearances with local authorities.

Robert Upe is Editor of Paradise, the in-flight magazine of Air Niugini, PNG’S national airline.

‘There is so much more tourism potential in PNG and that’s the story that doesn’t get out.’