The tourism good news

TOURISM is a grossly under exploited industry in Papua New Guinea today, says that country’s Tourism Promotion Authority. Due to the existence of rich mineral and forest resources within the country, little polit ical attention was focused towards this service industry in the past.

However, with its widely diversified geographical terrain within a small region and unique vibrant cultures, it has high potentiality to develop as a major tourism destination in the South Pacific. Papua New Guinea is a land of geographical diversity with high moun tains, low lying swamps and volcanoes.

Vast tracts of Papua New Guinea are still wild and underdeveloped.

Extremely rugged mountains, thick jungles, swamps and the sea have for centuries restricted contacts among dif ferent tribes, inhibiting the growth of a common language and contact with the outside world.

The tourism scenario in PNG is undergoing a rapid change. The govern ment established the Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) in early 1993 to change the nature of tourism in the country. It is to operate as a stimulus for the private sector by promoting the overall tourism image of the country and by facilitating the growth and development of the industry at home.

TPA expects that there will be a sig nificant upsurge of visitors in PNG in

the near future the great majority of them being holiday-makers. However, to maintain the quality of tourism prod ucts of PNG unaffected, a sudden upsurge of international visitors may not be desirable. It ideally needs a slow but very steady process of growth main taining close link with the carrying capacity of the industry at home.

After decades of no growth, to achieve this, it is essential that the momentum and direction initiated by the TPA in the marketing and develop mental areas be maintained and enhanced. And, at the same time, struc tural bottlenecks in the areas of aviation and other infrastructural areas need to be eased. A