GETTING PAPUA NEW GUINEA CHINA READY

I was fortunate enough to attend a CHINA READY workshop at APEC Haus on Thursday 25th of April 2024 around the topic of China Ready. The workshop was hosted by the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority and supported by the National Capital District Commission. Opening speeches were from a representative from the Chinese Embassy, the Minister of Tourism and the Governor of our District - all indicative of the muscle behind this program willing it on for success.

With the National Tourism Office looking East to attract more Chinese tourists, its an ambitious move by this beautiful, yet spasmodically volatile country, located within the South West Pacific to harness the full potential of its destination and evolve into a true tourism destination. As a result of talks between the Governor of our district and government counterparts in the province of Guangzhou, we now have the China Southern Airlines flying into Port Moresby once a week. There is talks of eventually moving this flight up to three times  week.

Having lived and worked in Fiji and being part of an industry that is strong within the Chinese source market I could not help but think about the journey that is ahead for this beautiful country that I now call home. The country’s tagline is “A Million Different Journeys”, and this ambitious move is going to be nothing short of an exhilarating journey as it moves to increase its Chinese inbound numbers by 100% in a span of 12 months.

More famous for the Kokoda Trail that attracts the majority of its tourism number, this is an ambitious and exciting move by Papua New Guinea. Last year alone, China constituted 10% of the arrival numbers into PNG (source: PNGTPA website). Of note is the fact that 14% of visitor arrivals into PNG travelled for leisure travel. When you think about Papua New Guinea, you can’t help but think about the danger, crime, civil unrest and other negative reasons, as per media, why we need to avoid this destination as opposed to gravitating more towards it!

However, in fairness, there is more to the destination than the many negative stories that we have seen on TV screens, hear on the radios, read in the new newspapers, and view on our social media streams. There are also other countries in the World, that like PNG, are dangerous but continue to have a steady stream of tourists that flock to their shores irrespective of the danger within the country. In 2022, Aromax (www.aromax.com) published a list of 22 most dangerous tourist destinations in the World and Papua New Guinea was not on that list. Some of the destinations however that were on the list were countries such as Jamaica, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, and Mexico to name a few.

The many attractions of this country, for me, are hidden behind a curtain weighted with news of the world that in my opinion has marred the true reflection of what this country can offer the world of global tourism. If you take the time to lift this weighted curtain and peer into the valleys, mountains, wildlife, amazing culture, and jaw dropping flora and fauna, you will find a bounty of experiences that is very much appreciated around the World.

Attending this workshop was a little over 100 representatives from different industries. The tourism industry is keen to understand more about the Chinese outbound guest and like anyone that is in survival mode, everyone was keen to understand how we need to adapt to be able to be ready to take on this market.

Whilst PNG is at present time not China ready, we have an exciting journey ahead of us to eventually get to a time when we can be sitting in a café in downtown Port Moresby enjoying bowls of congee and dim sum with chopsticks at the ready and conversing over simmering pots of Chrysanthemum tea to the background strums of a Chinese mandolin!

When thinking about the journey ahead of Destination PNG, The words of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu aptly come to mind….. “The journey of a thousand miles beings with a single step”. Simply put no matter the goal, we can achieve it by taking the first step and I believe we just took that step!

Onwards and upwards PNG. Here's to a brighter future for our tourism industry!