ENB tourism to benefit from economic sector funding

By JUNIOR UKAHA
THE tourism industry in East New Britain will benefit from funding allocated to the economic sector in the province, says administrator Wilson Matava.
Matava did not specify how much exactly the tourism industry in the province would get, but said all its programmes were catered for under the economic sector budget.
“The tourism sector comes under the economic sector with a K22.9 million funding allocation,” he said.
“There is funding for tourism in this budget to support our tourism authority and also continue to develop sites of attraction throughout the province.” The province’s tourism sector was put under the spotlight by East New Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry president David Stein during a forum.
He questioned how a K20 million funding allocated to the sector by the Government in 2015 was spent.
Matava said all records of how that money was used were with the East New Britain Tourism Promotion Authority and could be accessed.
He said there was funding to also support provincial tourism attraction events such as the Mask Festival, Tolai Warwargira and the Frangipani Festival.
Matava said East New Britain was recently declared a tourism hub of the country by the Government.
He said the provincial government would do all it could to support the sector and make it flourish.
Matava said the right infrastructure would be put in place to assist tour operators, event organisers and product owners to market their products.