Promote specific tourist destinations

 AN untapped or more precisely a slightly tapped avenue, yet capable of unleashing enormous benefits to the economy, tourism is indeed a sleeping giant, as rightly put by many. 

Unfortunately, the catastrophic cocktail of technology – in particular, the social Medias – and the seemingly never ending news on violence, crime, murder, corruption and the likes saw the country’s image deteriorating exponentially in the recent times. 

This threatens the future of the industry in Papua New Guinea heightening the possibility that the sleeping giant may remain in the slumber state for another lengthy duration with those envisaged benefits remain inaccessible and unexploited should the components in the latter half of the cocktail formula go on unchanged. With this understanding, it brings forth the question: “How do we promote Tourism in a country where circumstances in fact are not tolerating?”

Pounded with this conundrum, I was fortunate enough to be part of an audience addressed by the IMF country economist for Papua New Guinea, Dr Yurenda Basnett, in which pointed to a way out.

In Dr Basnett’s view, one of the ways forward for tourism in a country like Papua New Guinea badly afflicted by waning reputation would be to “promote specific tourist destinations” rather than promoting the country in whole as a tourist destination. 

An example of this concept is the famous Bali Island in Indonesia. It is a common norm amongst tourists and vacationers to say they are going to Bali or they just came back from Bali, rarely mentioning Indonesia despite it being the host nation. This simple selection of words in their (the tourists and vacationers) speech demonstrates the extent to which a particular tourist destination differs from the host nation itself when it comes to tourism. 

It effectively sets apart the specific tourist destination leaving it innocent, not liable and unsusceptible to whatever reputation or story the host nation is exposed to. This is the deal breaker. This is the light at the end of the tunnel. This is the way forward at the moment should we want to promote tourism in this country. 

I call on responsible authorities to seriously look into this concept of promoting specific tourist destinations rather than putting our efforts in promoting PNG as a whole only to watch helplessly as they are being devoured by the consuming flame of a waning reputation of the country.  

H. Jeconiah, Via email