The National Planning and Monitoring Minister said India has the third biggest tourist market in the world but people there don’t know much about PNG, and as a result, not many Indian tourists visit here.
“India has requested the Tourism Promotion Authority of PNG to have a road show in India where we can promote PNG to all their travel agents,” Maru said.
“We can target and market specifically to the country that has more than one billion people.”
Indian tourists spend an average of US$1500 (K4700) per tourist trip and are long-stay travellers, often staying 10 to 15 days in each destination, according to a report from the Ministry of National Planning and Monitoring.
However, visa access for Indian nationals wishing to visit PNG remain an issue due mainly to PNG’s lack of capacity and delegation of powers to the high commission in New Delhi to screen and process visa applications within a reasonable time.
Currently only 3000 people visit PNG from India annually.
As a way forward, the report recommends for PNG to engage private firms with international network and reputation, such as BLS International Services Limited, to act as PNG’s visa agents and at the same time use their networks to market and promote PNG as a desired tourism destination.
BLS is an internet technology service management company which can also process visa and passport applications.
