Papua New Guinea
...And Tourism, PNG Sells Potential Destinations
Mine Bay province tops the list
You cannot successfully sell the whole of Fiji, neither can you sell Vanuatu, nor the Solomon Islands, nor any other Pacific island country, to attract an outside visitor. But you can market selected portions of a country and be sure of some good returns.
This is the approach the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority has embarked on in an effort to promote potential destinations in the country. One of those places selected is the Milne Bay Province. Situated at the eastern end of Papua New Guinea, the Owen Stanley Range plunges into the sea and a scatter of islands dot the ocean for hundreds of kilometres. Of greatest interest in the province are the islands and there are plenty of them - 160 plus more than 600 islets and atolls, and untold number of reefs. Yet, there is one big difference to the better known areas of the Pacific - there are virtually no tourists.
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Historically, before the European explorers arrived, Pacific and Asian people knew this area. It has been suggested that ceremonial canoes used by the people from the Louisiade Archipelago, the only plank-built canoes in the Pacific, were modelled on Chinese junks. The islands were also well known to early explorers of the Pacific and many of them still bear their names.
The province also suffered from "blackbirding" activities of early traders, which was the forceful collection of "voluntary" labour for the Queensland sugar plantations in Australia.
It also has a place in the history of World War Two in the Pacific. Soon after the war spread to the Pacific, the Milne Bay area served as the stage for the turning point in the conflict between Japanese and Allied forces. In the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese rush south was abruptly halted. Although this is regarded as a classic naval battle, the Japanese and American warships did not once come within 300 kilometres of each other. The fighting was entirely conducted by aircraft.
Some of the violent dog-fights took place high above Misima in the Louisiades. American losses were severe. But the Japanese fleet was crippled and never again played an effective role in the Pacific. Culturally, despite European influences and Christianity, local traditions and village lifestyles haven't changed much to this day. The cultures vary from island to island with the Trobriands being the most distinctive of them.
The Trobriands were made famous after World War One by the work of Polish anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. His studies of the islanders, their intricate trading rituals, their yam cults and their sexual practices made them a special group of people in the province, the country and perhaps the Pacific region as a whole.
The Trobriands, dubbed the "Islands of Love", has so much to offer a visitor. One travel writer described the islands as one of the world¹s more peaceful and beautiful places. He said it would only take a traditional landowner to cash in on his islands by becoming a "partner" with a foreign company for large-scale resort tourism to take over. So far it has everything going for it.
