ENB board approves tourism documents

The National Islands

THE East New Britain executive council recently approved two vital documents that will set the foundation for the tourism
sector in the province to move forward.
These are the Tourism Master Plan 2017-2022 and the East New Britain Tourism Authority Act 2017.
The plan focuses on a tourism cluster development strategy that captures the vision and mission statements of the provincial government.
Provincial tourism board chairman Douglas Pidi said
the province had a steady increase in visitor arrivals over
the past decade and with an increasing number of cruise ship arrivals, it was set to surpass
some of the more popular
tourist destinations within the country.
He said the board of the authority would ensure that the national government’s “tourism
hub” concept was fully implemented.
Pidi said the board would invest in institutional capacity to handle growth and demand aspects in the sector while at the same time, create the framework for infrastructure support to the tourism industry.
He was confident tourism would succeed in East New Britain with the support of national and provincial governments.
Proposed cluster projects captured under the plan cover Atalikun- Duke of York, Kambubu- Uvol, Pomio tracks and caves, and the Gazelle Peninsula.
Projects under the Gazelle Peninsula cluster include:

  • Refurbishment of Kokopo and Rabaul museums;
  • development of craft markets at Kokopo, Rabaul and Malmaluan;
  • development of Baining fire dance cultural centre;
  • development of Rabaul cruise ship terminal;
  • development of comfort facilities in all tourism sites; and,
  • Development of marine park at Pigeon Island.

The plan is a working document and will be reviewed in six months.