Tourism needs backing of all

 PAPUA New Guinea’s un­der-developed tourism industry is the proverbial slee­ping giant, Fijian business man Bob Lowres says. 

The managing director of Relcorp property development said over the weekend in Kavieng that PNG was an untapped hub for diverse cultures and in his words, “Your country has enormous potential because the world is looking for different countries to visit and different civilisations to explore”. 

Indeed, this country is blessed with having a diverse set of indigenous Melanesian cultures, making it a potential Mecca for tourists who want something new. 

It offers people in search of new cultures a smorgasbord of choices. Kickboxing personality Stanley Nandex recognises the role culture and diversity play in a business. 

He was pushing for a movie to be filmed in PNG primarily because, as a location, this country is unique and has landscapes, flora and fauna seen nowhere else. Nandex said the novelty was a great selling point. 

Unfortunately, funding is­sues, the bane of any venture in the modern age, scuttled that project but it does not take away from possibilities. 

Several years ago Madang and other parts of PNG were considered by the producers of the Survivor series. 

Again difficulties in setting up shop in this country and access to services and reliable communications meant remote places in PNG were not viable for a high maintenance project. It is examples like this that show glimpses of what can be done if the conditions are right. 

Lowres, a former property developer from Brisbane, is involved in the tourist industry in Fiji. The owner of Naisoso Island Resort was invited by Kavieng MP and State Enterprises Minister Ben Micah as a special guest speaker at the Joint District Planning and Budget Priorities Committee meeting last Thursday. 

As an entrepreneur Lowres can see the opportunities in a country like PNG. 

“You’ve got such a rich cultural heritage spread right throughout your country but it is how you tap it and get into it.” 

He stressed that for the country to realise its potential in tourism the state and business sector needed to spend more money. 

“If you’re going to get serious about tourism, it requires a commitment from everybody, in particular, it needs the government to commit lots of money to it,” Lowres said. 

Fiji’s experience in tourism is instructive in that it sets a template for other Pacific Island countries to follow.  Fiji’s dependence on tourism has increased dramatically. Tourism became a major economic activity in Fiji during the 1960s. 

Like many developing countries Fiji has a narrow resource base and for long has depended on sugar exports as the main source of foreign exchange and employment. 

In recent years, however, the tourism industry has grown rapidly in Fiji to become the single largest foreign exchange earner. 

In 1998, for instance, sugar exports were valued at F$244 million (K322 million) – equivalent to 9.5 % of GDP while tourism exports were valued at F$568 million K749.9 million) – equivalent to 22.1 % of GDP, an increase of around 11 per cent from 1980. 

This indicates that Fiji depends heavily on tourism for the growth and development of the economy. 

PNG, on the other hand, unlike Fiji is not reliant on tourism as a major source of revenue or to shore up its economy. 

Royalties from the mining, oil and gas sector and logging currently account for the money coming into government coffers. 

It is time the government took steps to develop this industry before more and more of the country is lost to development and loses some of its diversity.