Caption: Minister Boka Kondra standing front row 4th
from the left
By MATTHEW VARI
MINISTER for Tourism, Arts and Culture Boka
Kondra in his country report to the 8th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Tourism Ministerial meeting in Macao, China- revealed that the country
was experiencing an average growth in tourism at 12.5 percent annually over the
last five years.
He said that despite the steady growth, the
sign were a positive reflection of the goals the government had set out to move
away from the country’s extractive resources sector which the country has
heavily relied on.
“International tourism arrivals to PNG
continue to grow at an average of 12.5% over the last five years,” Minister
Kondra said.
“This is a very steady but positive rate, most
of this growth is attributed to our online and internet marketing strategies.”
The minister attributed the growth to
Australia being the largest source of tourist number, however is optimistic of
growing the market to target member states in APEC member countries to see PNG
as a tourist destination after the 2018 hosting of APEC.
“Our primary source of tourists comes from
Australia while we receive good visitor numbers from Europe, North America, and
Asia particularly Japan,” Kondra said.
“However we believe that there is a greater
ability to encompass the rest of the APEC member economies as we move towards
our hosting year of 2018 and beyond.”
“Our Tourism Master Plan (2007-2017) goes in
line with a number of APEC priorities, in particular, People-to-People
Connectivity, which in turn, will aid the greater Regional Economic Integration
agenda.”
He added that through the Tourism Master Plan
developed by the government in 2007 as a road map for tourism development.
“The five (5) main Pillars of this Master
Plan– Marketing the Destination; Investment Incentives and Product Development;
Transport and Infrastructure; Human Resource Development; and, institution and
partnership – attest to Papua New Guinea’s promotion of the APEC People-to-People
connectivity agenda,” he said.
“These pillars also share some of the same
strategic directions of the APEC Tourism Strategic Plan.”
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