By Lillian Sopera Keneqa – EMTV News, Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea generated over 690 million kina from the tourism sector in 2018. From research conducted by International Finance Corporation in partnership with PNGTPA and the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute, the country received over 94, 000 visitors in 2018, which is a 9.5 per cent increase from 2017.
PNGTPA CEO, Jerry Agus, said “The country has so much potential to grow this industry in the coming years, however, there is still much work to be done.”
Papua New Guinea has huge potential in the coming years to become a major tourism hub.
PNGTPA Marketing Director, Alice Kuaningi said “The top three sectors benefiting from tourism continue to include accommodation, airfare, and food and beverage.”
However, while arrivals have grown, the average spend for every trip has decreased, in which safety, security and infrastructure are major concerns.
Ms. Kuaningi explained saying, “This is linked to a lower spend per day as well as a decrease in average length of stay. Flattening of spend per trip is a trend seen regionally in many Pacific destinations and, in PNG, could be linked to an increase in short business trips driven by the APEC meetings.”
Holiday visitors have increased, which indicates that PNG is closing the gap and getting closer to the global average holiday market of 53% of total visitors, in which Australians remain as PNG’s highest holiday visitors.
Through the data provided from the survey, PNGTPA will continue to help service providers build the industry.
