Last frontier status affirmed by tourism lax

Minister Tobias Kulang.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, December 18, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)



MINISTER for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Tobias Kulang has attributed the country’s last frontier status to the many issues that have plagued the industry.

He said with the interest now being focussed on tourism in the country- the recent addition of PNG in the National Geographic Travel magazine’s list of 21 must-see destinations in 2017 was an indication of interest in PNG’s untapped tourism potential.

“This is confirmation of the fact that we are one of the last frontier tourism destinations,” Minister Kulang said.

“A lot of the country is yet to be seen, and most parts of Papua New Guinea are unexplored, basically because of a couple of reasons one being we are still raw and not developed yet in terms of our products, so developing and having good destinations packaging properly is vital.”

“Much of our products in this country are yet to be developed, that is one of the reasons why we are still raw and exciting.”

“Secondly of the situation of law and order, this places are less travelled, and that when you turn that around the flipside is working positively for us, our beaches our dive sites, our mountains and lakes can be classified and our culture is unexplored.”

He added the diversity in the country is still raw while many of the nations in the world have lost their authenticity.

“In this country a lot of what we still have is still raw. I think we have done very well to attract some very renowned visitors this year.”

“We had a couple of personalities that came to a couple of our shows like the Goroka Show so when they went back I think that also contributed to our country being identified as one of the last frontiers and one of the 21 must see destinations to be seen in 2017.”

“That is a major announcement confidence boost for us, this kind of announcement by National Geography one of the respected publications in the world in terms of geography and travel that is a major recommendation for our country and all of us must be proud.”