Tourism in Papua New Guinea is in trouble

PETER BARTER

Few people that have ever visited PNG doubt the tremendous tourism potential PNG has to offer so many varied interests wether it be trekking, cultural, art, orchids, birding, diving, WW2 or just relaxing in unspoilt tropical splendour.
Up until the turn of the century there were positive signs that tourism would continue to prosper providing PNG with a renewable resource that was sustainable. More recently the visitor arrival figures issued by the Tourism Promotion Authority indicated that PNG had one of the fastest growing tourist industries in the South Pacific region and constant positive media reports indicated a healthy growth.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, the tourism industry in PNG generally has declined by more than 50 per cent over the past few years. I refer to “bonafide” tourists, not visitor arrivals which in real terms include all types of visitors to PNG.
No one disputes there are more people arriving in PNG, the reality is most are not tourists, instead they are people visiting PNG for other purposes in most cases work related many of whom abuse the ‘tourist visa’ system which help to distort the real situation of the tourist industry.
Historically much the growth of the tourist industry is directly related to overseas tour operators. It is through these partnership arrangements that have been concluded between local operators in PNG and these overseas operators who for the want of a special word have ‘packaged’ tours or parts of their tours to visit PNG.
These overseas operators are experts in their respective markets, they produce the superb tourist brochures that highlight reasons for visiting a particular destination. In more recent years they have used their websites and internet to expose their destinations and tours most of whom concentrate on their specific interests, as an example diving, trekking, birding and they know how to market their tours.
The end result is the tourists contracts to purchase the product that is described in their brochures and this has a direct impact on bonafide tourists who visit PNG.
The number of operators featuring tours to PNG from North America, Europe, UK, Japan, Australia would have been in the hundreds, supported by the various airlines. The exposure PNG received at this time resulted in the industries growth.
This coupled with other marketing by individual operators, agents, airlines (not least Air Niugni) and hotels including the attendances at tourist shows placed PNG in the right direction to expand the tourism industry.
In most cases a personal relationship exists between tour operators overseas and their partner operator in PNG, the underlying bond is a trust, confidence in each other knowing that when a group of a client is booked he, she or the group will receive what has been contracted to the local operator. Without this trust, many overseas tour operators will not entrust their clients in fear that they would be liable if something goes wrong.
Like integrity, it takes time to be established and generally speaking overseas operators have very few trusted relationships in PNG with their local providers.
To make matters worse, operators in PNG are not required to be licensed, it is possible simply by saying you are an operator, printing a letterhead saying you are an operator and regretfully this has happed on a number of occasions resulting in some very serious problems.
The decline began with circumstances beyond our control, fuel price increases, SARS, terrorism a general change in which PNG expected a continuation of the industry to grow without the need to retain the personal contact with the operators. Many of whom also suffered from the same effects and most recently the world wide economic situation and continuation of problems in the middle east that have frightened tourists, specially Americans from travelling internationally and to lesser known destinations..
While Air Niugini cannot be blamed for the reduction in tourism, the unreliability of schedules, cancelled and disrupted flights have not been helpful over the past couple of years.
Tourists from developed countries have become increasingly aware of the ease to sue and Tour Operators are frequently targeted for not providing the services described in their brochures which in turn has forced tour operators sell destinations that are better known for their reliability and safety.
Another recent obstacle to developing tourism is the withdrawal of commuter air services that previously linked the Highlands with the coast and islands.
A tourist visiting PNG wanting to see each of the geographic regions is forced to fly back to Port Moresby and connect with flights into the next geographic region, this not only wastes time, but also substantially increased the airfares making PNG more expensive to visit and subsequently more difficult to sell.
The law and order situation does not help. We have failed to handle this situation well in PNG. In Fiji despite three military coups their industry has survived because the industry went into ‘damage control’ by a collective approach with the Fiji Visitors Bureau and the Industry association.
While we must recognise some areas in PNG are more dangerous than others, it is the perception that has resulted through the adverse Travellers Alerts produced by Australia, USA, Japan and European governments warning their citizens of the dangers that exist in PNG without in many cases specifically identifying the areas of danger.