Reviving Tourism in Hela

Despite all the negativity that Hela Province has lately been known for, the provincial leaders with the support from the Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) are taking a positive step in changing the image of the province through Tourism.

This was made known yesterday when the Minister for Tourism Tobias Kulang made a cheque presentation of K100, 000 to the Hela Provincial Government.
The funding was made available following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed early last year by TPA and provincial governments to enhance the development of tourism in all provinces.

Minister Kulang said Hela Province is fully diverse with culture and beautiful vegetation which makes the province a key destination for Tourism.
“Hela used to be one of the major tourism destinations given its rich and fascinating Wigman culture with popular lodges such as Ambua Lodge, however the ongoing law and order issues in the province has affected tourism activities in the province” said Minister Kulang.

Hela Governor Francis Potape also shared same sentiments with Minister Kulang that law and order issues must be done away with in order to revive tourism in the province.
“10 years ago, Hela was known for tourism and we had plane full of tourist flying into the province every week, but this is not the case today and we want to bring those glory days back so we have allocated K2million for tourism from the provincial budget for this year” said Mr Potape.
With the available funding, the provincial government will set up a Tourism Bureau at Tari which will then be followed by a Cultural Centre and other arms of the Bureau that needs to be set up.
It is understood that under the MoU that was signed, TPA will provide assistance in the areas of technical advice, website development, office computers, product development and staff training among other things. PNGFM