Tourism can fire up economy, says Agus

Business

TOURISM in the country is the perfect small to medium-sized enterprise sector business that fits all Papua New Guineans, says the chief executive of the Tourism Promotion Authority, Jerry Agus.
Agus said tourism in PNG had the potential to fire up the economy, particularly the SME sector, as it did not require extensive technology and knowledge to venture into tourism business.
He said although PNG did not have massive tourism products to offer, it had a niche tourism product which had the potential to showcase its unique cultural heritages, spectacular geographical features like the coral sandy islands to cruising the mighty rivers, climbing high mountains, hiking and bird watching.
He said the sector had the potential besides the mineral and petroleum sector if few issues like the high cost of living and the law and order problems were addressed.
Agus said Papua New Guinea had focused too much on the extractive sector and not much on the renewable resources sector like tourism and agriculture, while it was the opposite for other countries.