Papua New Guinea: opportunities to develop a backpacker market

Abstract

Papua New Guinea is rarely heard of as a tourism destination and visited by few tourists yet the nation offers a great diversity of attractions particularly in the marine tourism area. Lack of investment, difficult topography and more importantly, a poor reputation for personal safety appear to be the major issues hampering tourism development. This paper explores the option of backpacker led tourism development based on sourcing backpackers from Cairns, a popular North Australian destination. The paper reports on the finding of a study of backpackers in Cairns to determine their propensity to travel to Papua New Guinea. Most had next heard of Papua New Guinea and only a minority were interested in visiting the nation.