Tourist numbers in Papua New Guinea drop dramatically: Sir Peter

Former Madang Governor and prominent tourism operator Sir Peter Barter says tourist numbers in Papua New Guinea have dropped dramatically.

Sir Peter, an outspoken former Health Minister, also reiterated his earlier calls for PNG to import Cuban doctors to serve in the rural areas of the country.

He was speaking at the Divine Word University open day in Madang today which was presided over by Governor General Sir Paulias Matane.

“Sadly today, despite what we read in the media, tourism has decreased dramatically not only in Madang and the Sepik, but throughout PNG with perhaps the exception of the Kokoda Track,” Sir Peter said.

“Visitor arrivals have increased but this is mainly as a result of other economic activities including the LNG projects. 

“Airlines are happy, hotels in Port Moresby may be happy but provincial tourist operators are seriously concerned over the decline.

“Students at DWU should delve into some of the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why bona fide tourism is in decline.”

Sir Peter said it was also his intention to import initially 50 Cuban doctors to work with church health services to assess their effectiveness to improve rural health services.

“It was also to send 50 PNG students to Havana to train as rural doctors but equally, if not more important, was the development of a rural doctors programme at DWU,” he said.

“Whilst the Cuban concept remains stationary, I am pleased that DWU is moving ahead with its plan to train rural doctors.

“As Minister for Health, I had National Executive Council approval to fund K300 million to improve health infrastructure including hospitals, equipment and rural health services.  

“This was eroded down to K187m.

“Little of this money was released and as we all know our health service is in a terrible state. 

“As Minister, I introduced several legislations: that included the Health Service Management Act which effectively combined national, provincial and LLG health services and hospitals; and the Church Health Act which was to allow Churches to do what they do best and allow them to seek direct funding through donors and other sources and stand on their own two feet. 

“The National Aids Council Amendment provided a multi-sectoral council to coordinate the fight against HIV/Aids in PNG.

“In June, DWU will be hosting an important youth HIV/AIDS debate.

“This debate will be the first of its kind in PNG where all universities will be involved and already they have met and finalised the rules of engagement. 

“The debate will be opened by Grand Chief, Sir Michael Somare, and will be attended by the Health Minister and hopefully other leaders, but they will be here to listen to the educated youth, keeping in mind they are the most-likely to be effected by the HIV virus and together, we need to hear how the youth feel the Government should improve in awareness, treatment and care.”