Hotels, guest houses to boost tourism

Highlands

By MALUM NALU
Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas says the proliferation of guest houses, lodges and hotels in the province is  good for the tourism industry.
He said this when welcoming the establishment of a brand new three-star hotel in Wabag – Ribitos Hotel – which was set up by local businessman Paul Kurai with help from the National Development Bank.
“This is a good story of a local businessman who is putting money back into the province,” Sir Peter told The National.
“We want to encourage local businessmen like Kurai to put up hotels, lodges and guesthouses to cater for this market.”
He said Ribitos added to the other major hotel in Wabag – Daewon –  as well as several smaller lodges and guesthouses.
“We promote building of hotels, lodges and guesthouses within Enga,” Sir Peter said.
“We want to build this up, as we now have a lot of children working outside of Enga and when they come home, some would want to stay in their traditional homes while some would want to stay in a more modern place.
“I’ve got a young, energetic and educated population coming up and I know that such projects will really help to promote the province.
“More importantly, this is an investment for the future.
“If our agriculture projects go well, we will become a food basin of PNG, people will visit us. They will come beyond Mt Hagen.”
According to Sir Peter, Enga has  two hotels and 24 guest houses altogether.