To celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence in Papua New Guinea, for the month of September Australian Policy and History is publishing policy briefs written by students studying at Honours, Masters or Doctoral levels who attended a June 2025 intensive workshop on Papua New Guinea and Australia, sponsored by DFAT and run by Deakin’s Centre for Contemporary Histories, at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Attention: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong
Purpose:
Papua New Guinea’s tourism sector holds vast potential but remains underdeveloped due to infrastructure gaps, security concerns, and limited investment. It contributes only 1.2% to the national GDP but has the potential to become a key driver in economic growth and job creation. This policy brief recommends Australian support for developing tourism corridors to enhance safety, infrastructure, and local enterprise. Strategically planned routes, such as the Port Moresby – Kokoda Track – Northern Province Tourism Corridor, will link key attractions together and provide a safe route for tourists that can be easily maintained and surveyed.
The Problem:
Papua New Guinea possesses immense potential to cultivate a thriving tourism industry, rich in cultural heritage, biodiversity, and historical significance. However, the current state of the tourism sector remains underdeveloped and in need of better security, investment, and infrastructure development to align with global standards.
According to Papua New Guinea Travel (2024:para 3), tourism contributes a mere 1.2 per cent to the nation’s total Gross Domestic Product, a figure that underscores how underutilised the sector remains. Eric Mossman Uvovo, the Chief Executive Officer of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority, described the nation as ‘a treasure trove of untapped potential’. He emphasised that, with the right support, tourism could generate over 50,000 additional jobs across the country. This also offers a sustainable alternative to the extractive industries in Papua New Guinea.
Security concerns are a major deterrent for both tourists and investors. Smartraveller (2025:para 1) reports that incidents of armed robbery, tribal conflicts, and civil unrest remain prevalent in various parts of the country.
Yet, the Papua New Guinea government has designated tourism as a key priority in its Vision 2050, the country’s long-term development strategy. Tourism also offers a significant opportunity for economic diversification in Papua New Guinea, as it has the potential to provide more sustainable and inclusive development compared to mining or other extractive industries that are criticised for unequal distribution of benefits. For rural and coastal communities in particular, tourism can serve as a means of livelihood generation, cultural preservation, and local enterprise development. There is an important opportunity for Australia to contribute to Papua New Guinea’s tourism development.
Policy Alternatives:
While the development of tourism corridors would be the recommended strategy for promoting tourism in Papua New Guinea. Other alternative policies can also be employed to boost the country’s tourism industry. These are Special Economic Zones, Community-Based Tourism and Eco-Tourism.
Special Tourism Zones prioritise tourism development through incentives for both domestic and foreign investment in the tourism industry. As the investment is spent on specific areas, this allows more impactful tourism growth, enhanced safety and service for tourists. The benefit of Special Tourism Zones is that they offer fast-tracked regional tourism development.
Community-based Tourism supports grassroots tourism development as it empowers the local communities to offer authentic cultural and nature-based experiences. This program requires limited government support, basic training, and microgrants that can generate local employment. The benefit of Community-based Tourism is that it enables inclusive growth and promotes the local culture of the area.
Lastly, Eco-Tourism is a strategy that can boost tourism by promoting the local biodiversity and culturally rich landscapes of Papua New Guinea. The benefit of Eco-Tourism is that it will help to protect the environment while supporting local employment.
Policy Recommendation:
An effective strategy to boost Papua New Guinea’s tourism industry can be the development of tourism corridors. Destination Canada (2025:para 2) describes a tourism corridor as a defined geographical area, often along a route, that links multiple destinations and attractions. These corridors aim to facilitate safe travel for tourists, support regional development, and encourage investment in infrastructure.
Focused investments in roads, airports, hospitality, cultural preservation, and community training programs can transform these corridors into vibrant tourism hubs. Importantly, they also offer a framework for inclusive growth by engaging local communities in the tourism sector, providing employment, and encouraging small-enterprise development.
Several international models illustrate the success of this strategy. The Port Moresby – Kokoda Track – Northern Province Corridor will incorporate the Kokoda Trail, which holds significance for Australia as it has deep cultural and wartime ties with the country. It offers potential for heritage tourism, particularly targeting Australian tourists interested in trekking, military history, and indigenous culture.
Drawing from this example, Australia and Papua New Guinea’s close partnership can play a vital role in supporting the development of tourism corridors in Papua New Guinea through investment, capacity-building, and security partnerships.
Australia can play a vital role as Papua New Guinea’s closest partner and largest donor. Existing bilateral mechanisms like the Australia–PNG Comprehensive Strategic and Economic Partnership (CSEP) can be leveraged to integrate tourism into broader development cooperation. Moreover, Australia can also provide infrastructure investment, security cooperation, technical assistance and launch capacity-building programs to promote local businesses in Papua New Guinea.
Other examples of tourism corridors have been provided in the appendix.
Contact: Muhammad Junaid Zahid
Student – Bachelor of Arts (Honours), International Relations, Deakin University
Email: s222014256@deakin.edu.au
Sources Consulted:
Destination Canada (2025) ‘Destination Canada Launches New Tourism Corridor Strategy’, Corporate, Government of Canada, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://www.destinationcanada.com/en-ca/news/destination-canada-launches-new-tourism-corridor-strategy>.
Kasarda J (2020) ‘Thailand’s Dynamic Economic Corridor’, International Update, SITE Selection, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://siteselection.com/thailands-dynamic-economic-corridor/#:~:text=Thailand’s%20Eastern%20Economic%20Corridor%20(EEC,schools%20and%20modern%20medical%20facilities>.
Papua New Guinea Travel (2024) ‘Papua New Guinea Travel Statistics Presented at UPNG Tourism Convention’, News, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://papuanewguinea.travel/papua-new-guinea-travel-statistics-presented-at-upng-tourism-convention/>.
Papua New Guinea Travel (2024) ‘What To Do’, Home, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://papuanewguinea.travel/things-to-do/>.
Smartraveller (2025) ‘Papua New Guinea’, Pacific, DFAT, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/pacific/papua-new-guinea#:~:text=We%20advise:,vaccinations%20are%20up%20to%20date>.
The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (2021) ‘Costa Rica’, Overview, UNDP, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://www.biofin.org/costa-rica>.
The Independent State of Papua New Guinea (2008) ‘Papua New Guinea Vision 2050’, National Strategic Plan Taskforce, United Nations, accessed on 10 July 2025, <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1496png.pdf>.
Thailand, Eastern Economic Corridor:
As reported by Kasarda (2020:para 1), Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor includes tourism corridor initiatives that connect key cultural and natural attractions across the eastern provinces and has succeeded in attracting over 29 million tourists annually.
Costa Rica, Eco-Tourism Corridors:
According to the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (2021:para 7), the Eco-tourism corridors have helped Costa Rica become a global leader in sustainable tourism, drawing eco-conscious travellers while simultaneously protecting biodiversity.