PNG's newest Fishing Paradise
LIDENHAFEN - Papua New Guinea's newest fishing resort situated on the south coast of the main island of New Britain is set to receive rear publicity overseas after the visit by a Australian television crew and the Bluewater Boats and Sport Fishing magazine. Former rugby league star Andrew Ettinghausen who spent a week there fishing and filming for his "Escape with ET" program on Channel Nine will air coverage of the trip in March 2005. While Bluewater Boats and Sport Fishing editor David Granville who also spent a week at Lindenhafen from November 1-5 said the visit could appear in the next issue of the magazine.

Pro-Invest Seminar
Investment opportunities in the Papua New Guinea tourism sector will be among 100 such oppurinities from the Pacific Region to be presented at the PROfIT Tourism Investment Seminar in Nadi, Fiji from February 1 - 4 2005. This follows a successful two day workshop led by PROfIT in the Pacific team coordinator Robert Cleverdon in Port Moresby on November 1-2. PROfIT in the Pacifc is part of a European Union fund to promote partnerships between Pacific enterprises in the tourism related sectors.   

PNG Attends 25th WTM
The PNG Tourism Promotion Authority attended the 25th silver jubillee World Travel Market (WTM) in London from the 8 -11 November 2004. TPA chief executive officer Peter Vincent and marketing manager Jim Yomapisi represented the TPA and the general tourism industry in PNG. TPA's marketing reprsentives in the Baltics & Scandinavia and  Germany as well as the Trans Niugini Tours and Air Niugini's representatives in the United Kingdom and the PNG High Commissioner Jean Kekedo and her staff were present at the PNG booth. They all assisted in answering questions and providing information to more than 15,000 consumers that visited the PNG booth. PNG was part of the South Pacific Village at the WTM which included Cook Islands, Taithi and Fiji Islands. According to Mr. Yomapisi, it was interesting that a lot of people that came to the PNG booth had a fair knowlegde of PNG beforehand. Operators from as far as Itlay, Israel, Sweden, France and Bulgaria who visited the booth have sent smaller numbers of visitors to PNG.

Australian Office
THE Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority will set up office in Australia next year following the government's approval of K4 million for the project. The TPA Office will be in Sydney. Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said the National Executive Council had approved funding to be included in the 2005 national budget handed down by Treasurer Bart Philemon in Parliament on November 16. Sir Michael said the establishment of the regional office in Australia was part of a wider and specific marketing and promotional strategy as Australia remains the single largest source market for Papua New Guinea's inbound tourists. The Government has also allocated K2 million in the development budget for tourism purposes. "Tourism is an important economic sector for Papua New Guinea in the long term and must be nurtured and developed so ordinary Papua New Guineans can gain meaningfully in future," said the Prime Minister. 

New Kokoda Website
Australian based tour operator Adventure Kokoda has a new website at www.adventurekokodatreks.com. In announcing the new website, owner and New South Wales Parliamentarian Charlie Lynn said they have also assisted chief guide Alex Rama to establish his own PNG trekking company - Kokoda Experience Pty Ltd. Mr. Lynn encouraged other local Koiari and Orokaiva operators to join him, as there are now enough business for them to share. He said the company has also allowed for one village student to be sponsored at a local elementary school for one year for each group who books through the website. Mr. Lynn recently led a group from Father Chris Riley's Youth Off the Street program across the trail. Australia's Channel 10 sent a crew to cover their progress and it was screened on November 6th - "Kids on Track".

Resounding Success
THE inaugural Milne Bay Canoe Festival from November 5-7 in idylic Alotau has been a resounding success with talk already of making the 2005 festival even bigger and better. Debora Kolb, a tourist on the dive boat MV Golden Dawn was so impressed with the organisation and variety of events. "If this is only the first year, I can't image how good subsequent festivals will be. I will tell everyone I meet that they must come next year," she said. Milne Bay Tourism manager Eimi Kigole-Sira said the festival rode on the palpable interest and excitement by the community. She said the exceptional effort by the participants resonated the inner spirit of the people and their attachment to their cultural heritage. Canoe Festival Committee chairman John Wills Kaniku said: "Words cannot explain the glamour and thrill of a genuine exhibition of culture that is unique to Milne Bay".     

PNG Dive Images Tops
THE amazing color and splendour of the underwater world of Papua New Guinea as captured on camera won numerous awards and accorlades at the recent Antibes Film and Photographic Awards in Italy. Laurent Ballesta won the Plongeur d'Or concours Diapositives (10 slide portfolio) with shots from Walindi Dive Resort in West New Britain and Loloata Island Resort outside Port Moresby. Second and third place getters also included PNG shots. United Kingdom based John Boyle of Shark Bay Films won a special award for Colors of PNG and lots of commendations for a five minute video which included a combination of colorful underwater images accompanied by tradiational Papua New Guinean chants. Mirko Zanni of Switzerland got silver in the Diaporamas for his "Lost Squadron" about underwater plane wrecks in PNG.

Boost for Air Travel
TRAVELLERS are set to enjoy more comfortable air travel and get to destinations more quicker after the Papua New Guinea national airline Air Niugini announced a second Fokker 100 aircraft will join its domestic and international fleet by December 6, 2004. The airline said the acquisition of the second Fokker 100 shows Air Niugini's commitment to the people of PNG. It said they were proud to offer the most efficient and environemntally friendly, modern passenger jet aircraft within the country. The Fokker 100 is the largest commercial aircraft operating scheduled domestic services in PNG with a seating for 98 passengers, 90 in economy and 8 in business class. Air niugini currently operates the jet from Port Morebsy to Lae and internationally to Cairns and will now include Mount Hagen, Rabaul and Hoskins.

Surfing Boost
Papua New Guinea surfing is set for a major boost following the arrival of travel writers and photographers on Saturday.  Jess Ponting, a lecturer in sustainable tourism at the Sydney University of Technology, will lead a team of four to catch that perfect wave in Vanimo and Wewak over the next two weeks. The team arrived in Papua New Guinea on Saturday (Nov. 20). Their mission is to develop relationships between the surfing cultures in Australia and PNG through the surf board donation program where communities in Australia donate secondhand surfboards to locals in PNG's surfing communities. They will be delivering 35 surfboards on this trip including one signed by world surfing champion Layne Beachley and earmarked for a special girl in Vanimo. The rest of the team is James Alcock, senior photographer with the Sydney Morning Herald, specialing in travel, outdoors and lifestyle feature images. Tanya Lake is a renonwed photographer who won that prestigious World Press Photo Award 2004 and Brad Farmer is the senior writer with tRACKS magazine - the Surfers' Bible. 

© Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority | P.O Box 1291 | Port Moresby | Papua New Guinea Tel :  +675 320 0211 | Fax :  +675 320 0223 | info@pngtourism.org.pg Design by RéserveGroup | Powered by OpenCMS This site has been optimised for Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 1.5+ or Netscape 7+ with Adobe Flash Player 7.0 installed.