Kulang pushes for tourism growth

Tourism Minister Tobias Kulang says tourism is a growing sector contributing more than 10 per cent to global GDP.
Kulang who opened a new lodge in Alotau, Milne Bay last Friday, said that more needed to be done to improve the tourism industry in the country.
He said the country should use the opportunities it has now through gains from  mineral and hydrocarbon industries to make quick and meaningful interventions into sustainable industries like tourism and agriculture.
“The negative image about the country in terms of law and order internationally has worked out positively for us,” Kulang said.
“The fact that we have been avoided for a while has preserved us truly as an undiscovered destination for this time.
“We need to rise up now and sell ourselves systematically to the world.”
Kulang predicted that the tourism industry in Milne Bay would grow to sustain up to 30 per cent of the province’s GDP.
He said it was imperative that stakeholders should make every effort to put in place necessary building blocks to ensure the growth.
He said the province’s isolation was a selling point as the retreat destination.
Kulang instructed the Tourism Promotion Authority to build a marketing model around PNG as a hugely undiscovered and unseen destination – the last frontier.
The Alotau Waterfront Lodge, which has 17 rooms, is owned by the Igara family. Kulang said the lodge would help with the growth of tourism in the province.