Tourism
King Vows to Help Boost PNG Tourism
He wants government to recognise industry’s contribution
Papua New Guinea’s new tourism minister, Alois King has undertaken to provide the country’s tourism outfit with funding and assistance to help promote the industry.
Launching PNG Tourism Promotion Authority’s new corporate logo, King said Papua New Guinea was one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the Asia/Pacific region. But the tourism industry lacked the necessary support to become a major income earner for the country.
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“Looking at the tourist figures for the past 10 years, there has only been a small increase of 3.8 percent,” he said.
“Although the importance of tourism has been acknowledged and recognised by successive governments, the fact remains the industry has not been developed and only minimal public resources have been used to develop the sector.
“In my term as minister, I will endeavour to work closely with all stakeholders to ensure that the government, within its limited resources, duly recognises the importance of the tourism sector and accordingly formulate appropriate policies.”
The new logo carries four features — a bird of paradise, blue colour strips, a coconut palm and the original rainbow colours from the old logo. The bird of paradise — derived from the generic national symbol of Papua New Guinea — flies high representing the country. Blue colour strips represent Papua New Guinea’s pristine waters, focusing on its marine diversity being rated one of the best dive sites in the world. The coconut palm represents the tropical island. The original rainbow colours were retained to project Papua New Guinea as an attractive island paradise.
As part of an endeavour to develop a new outlook in its marketing and promotional drive, workers of PNG Tourism Authority have also launched their new corporate uniforms.
PNG Tourism Promotion Authority chief executive officer, John Kambowa also announced that various new initiatives are under way to accompany the new corporate logo. The new initiatives are aimed at encouraging the community at large to be partners in the tourism industry.
In other positive news, the new look user-friendly PNG Tourism Promotion Authority website, to be launched shortly, adds extra boost to this “Papua New Guinea experience” at one’s fingertips anywhere in the world.
The authority is also appealing to the government and private sector to help in marketing and promoting Papua New Guinea through the businesscard concept.
Basically, how this concept works is to have the authority’s postal and website addresses printed on the back of businesscards for government and private sector executives as a novel way of marketing and promoting the country.
The authority has introduced this businesscard promotional programme as a national drive to sell Papua New Guinea through its website. Several organisations have agreed to participate in the businesscard promotion programme including the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, PNG Harbours Board, Avis Rent A Car, Hornibrooks Ltd, Department of Health, National Planning & Monitoring, PNG Forest Authority, National Research Institute, and Small Business Development Corporation.
