Capital tops tourist numbers for 2019

By DALE LUMA
THE National Capital District (NCD) has recorded the highest number of tourists last year, injecting K1.5 billion into country’s economy, says NCD tourism coordinator Betty Laufa.
Laufa said this when responding to questions from The National on the progress of the tourism industry in Port Moresby.
“According to the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) today, NCD received the highest number of international visitor arrivals to PNG in 2019,” she said. “NCD recorded a total number of 105,212 tourists out of the total of 210,980 that visited the country for various purposes.
“According to PNG TPA’s 2019 visitor exit survey, the total visitor expenditure in 2019 was estimated to be K1.5 billion which was an increase from 2018.
“Of this figure, genuine tourists spent a total of K715 million into the PNG economy which was a direct result of the increase in holiday arrivals and length of stay in the country.
“NCD has recorded the highest tourist arrivals for genuine holiday purposes in 2019, with the exception of Milne Bay and East New Britain receiving an increasing number of cruise arrivals in recent time.”
Laufa attributed NCD’s strong performance to some of the new infrastructure developments in and around Port Moresby.
“Tourism is progressing well with all the latest developments with infrastructure such as roads which has really improved.
“All the developments has really helped tourism to gain some momentum.
“For us, at the tourism office here, we work closely with our stakeholder partners concentrating on helping locals develop their tourism products.
“With the new developments in the city, there is no excuse for tourism to be stagnant.
“Like any other city in the world, Port Moresby has its own attraction.”
Laufa also told The National that domestic tourism also had the potential to grow considering the high number of local tourists travelling the country.