Campsite course helps Morgan run a better guesthouse

Before taking on the management of his family’s guesthouse at Efogi along the Kokoda Track, 24-year-old Benson Morgan had no small business training or experience.
After dropping out of school in grade 10 and struggling to make a living, he needed to find a way to earn money to sustain his family.
“To survive along the Kokoda Track, you have to work to earn money, you cannot rely on garden food alone,” Morgan said.
“We need basic supplies like salt, soap, cooking oil and sometimes rice to keep us going.”
He started working as a porter in 2013, while also supporting the family business by bringing trekkers when walking the track.
Morgan was keen to develop the campsite further to earn more income.
In 2016, he attended a course for campsite and guesthouse owners as part of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority’s accommodation accreditation scheme.
The scheme is being delivered through the Kokoda Initiative with the support of Australian Government and is introducing industry standards to guesthouse and campsite owners along the track.
It is designed to support the sustainable growth of the tourism industry, with the track as the first area of focus.
“This training was an eye-opener for me and I learnt so many new things about managing a business and keeping records, something I did not know or practise before,” Morgan said. The Australian Government in the past year had worked with Kokoda Initiative partner agencies to support more than 75 campsite and guesthouse owners know more about accommodation standards. The Kokoda Initiative works with track communities to improve health and education outcomes along the track corridor, support the economic empowerment of local people and also ways to meet the needs of trekkers along the Kokoda Track.