Visa on arrival to boost tourism in PNG

The Papua New Guinea Government in its bid to promote tourism in the country has made special allowances which will see Australian tourists being issued visa on arrival starting next year.
While this initiative had been given the nod by Cabinet and the necessary regulations have been put in place, it will not be effected until Air Niugini starts its direct services into the special tourist zones, starting with Gurney-Alotau, when the next Kenu & Kundu Festival takes place.
The same courtesy will later be extended to the other tourist zones of Mt Hagen, Kokopo as well as Madang. This was made known by National Planning Minister Charles Abel, who said that the initiative has been trialed during the successful Brisbane-Gurney flight on November 6.
He said the Australians who were on board that flight were mostly tour operators and that they had been issued with visas on arrival.
He said the processing of the tourists to eventual issuance of the visas had been successful and done using the main immigration on-line system and had taken about 25 minutes and was a success.
The issue had been contentious when it surfaced last year with Australia’s refusal to grant visa on arrival to Papua New Guineans.
Mr Abel said that the Government remained dissatisfied on this issue, however, he stressed the importance and the rationale behind this move. He said the Government had not let up on the issue, adding it was still pushing and still insisting that Papua New Guineans should also be granted visa on arrival in Australia.
"This initiative we are giving to Australia to get visa on arrival is a special tourism push and into selected areas. It is not for business. We are maintaining our general stance and that is we want Australians, who make up 50 per cent of the market of tourists, to come and spend money here.
"Under the tourism push we are making these special allowances for entry not just for Australia but other countries as well.
"We have made it difficult for these tourists to come, especially when we are competing with places like Fiji who give visa on arrival, are low cost and have quality products. We have to give the industry a boost to be able to be competitive."